LBO stands for "leveraged buyout," which is a financial transaction in which one company acquires another using a significant amount of borrowed money (debt) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loans, along with the cash flow of the company. LBOs can have many different forms such as management buyout (MBO), management buy-in (MBI), secondary buyout, and tertiary buyout, among others, and can occur in growth situations, restructuring situations, and insolvencies. LBOs mostly occur in private companies, but can also be employed with public companies (in a so-called PtP transaction – public-to-private) . LBOs have become attractive as they usually represent a win–win situation for the financial sponsor and the banks: the financial sponsor can increase the rate of returns on its equity by employing the leverage; banks can make substantially higher margins when supporting the financing of LBOs as compared to usual corporate lending, because the interest chargeable is that much higher.