Across Wall Street, bankers are back to speculating about 'The Big One.'

They are referring to talk around Wall Street that there is at least one private-equity deal now on the table that could top $10 billion in value, a sum that seemed unthinkable just six months ago. People familiar with the deal decline to reveal details but say it could be completed within months.

The fact that a deal is even in the offing points to renewed vigor not seen for nearly three years in leveraged buyouts, deals in which private-equity firms take over companies with large amounts of borrowed money.

'A large leveraged buyout is clearly doable today,' said Karim Assef, the head of financial sponsors at Bank of America Corp.'s Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He added it would have to be 'for the right company, with the right ratings profile and with the right mix of debt and equity.'

From 2005 to 2007, private-equity firms spent roughly $1.6 trillion on deals that placed iconic American companies into private hands, from luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group to media giant Clear Channel Communications.

Back then, $10 billion wasn't even that much. The last deal north of $10 billion was Blackstone's takeover of Hilton Worldwide, a $20 billion transaction that closed in October 2007.

The $32 billion buyout of Texas power utility TXU, the biggest LBO in history, closed on Oct. 10, 2007, the day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all-time high of 14164.53.

When the credit markets collapsed in 2007, the leveraged buyout boom abruptly ended, leaving damage. Many private-equity deals soured as companies loaded with debt filed for bankruptcy, and the banks that had committed financing were stuck with billions of dollars of loans they couldn't sell.

But as markets have recovered, buyout shops have once again been emboldened to pursue ever-larger deals.

The megadeal also holds appeal for the bankers advising on them -- the larger the transaction, the greater the deal fee.

Also fueling the recovery in deals: Private-equity firms are sitting on roughly $445 billion in uninvested capital, according to new research from Cambridge Associates.

Still, the LBO deals struck over the past six months are small change compared with the historic buyouts struck during the middle of the last decade. Of the eight going-private transactions struck by private-equity firms through the end of April, the average purchase price including debt is $800 million, according to data-provider Dealogic.

Peter Lattman / Anupreeta Das

• financial [fi´nænʃəl] a.金融的，财政的 (初中英语单词)
• luxury [´lʌkʃəri] n.奢侈(品)；享受 (初中英语单词)
• channel [´tʃænəl] n.海峡；航道；途径 (初中英语单词)
• industrial [in´dʌstriəl] a.工业的，产业的 (初中英语单词)
• abruptly [ə´brʌptli] ad.突然地；粗鲁地 (初中英语单词)
• pursue [pə´sju:] v.追赶；追踪；从事 (初中英语单词)
• research [ri´sə:tʃ] n.&vi.调查；探究；研究 (初中英语单词)
• billion [´biljən] num.万亿 (高中英语单词)
• roughly [´rʌfli] ad.粗糙地；毛糙地 (高中英语单词)
• appeal [ə´pi:l] vi.&n.请求；呼吁；上诉 (高中英语单词)
• recovery [ri´kʌvəri] n.重获；获得；恢复 (高中英语单词)
• cambridge [´keimbridʒ] n.剑桥 (高中英语单词)
• historic [his´tɔrik] a.有历史意义的 (高中英语单词)
• decade [´dekeid] n.十年(间) (高中英语单词)
• utility [ju:´tiliti] n.有用 a.有各种用途的 (英语四级单词)
• bankruptcy [´bæŋkrʌptsi] n.破产 (英语四级单词)
• profile [´prəufail] n.侧面 vt.画...侧面 (英语六级单词)