Howard Marks: private equity is finding it too easy to raise money

A flood of "easy money" from investors is leaving private equity groups to pay too much for deals and lower their standards, says billionaire investor Howard Marks.

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Howard Marks,founder and co-chairman, Oaktree Capital
(Image credit: © 2015 Bloomberg Finance LP.)

Billionaire investor Howard Marks has warned that private-equity companies are currently paying too much for deals, and lowering their standards in doing so, partly because they are finding it so easy to raise money from investors. "When there's too much money around, it creates really bad things," he tells the Financial Times. "You've got to think of the markets like an auction. There is an opportunity to lend money. Who gets to make the loan? The person who will accept the least."

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