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Re:Toys 'R' Us Founder Charles Lazarus Dies at 94 by asmithmd1 on Friday March 23, 2018 @08:22AM (#16657215)
Here is how it worked:

Bain Capital decides to acquire Toys-R-Us so they set-up NewToyCo and invest $5B in it.

NewToyCo buys Toys-R-Us with that $5B and installs new managers at Toys-R-Us. Since the invested cash was investment and not a loan, NewToyCo owns Toys-R-Us free and clear

The new managers of Toys-R-Us get a $5B loan from banks secured by the assets of Toys-R-Us and pay a one time $5B dividend to shareholders of NewToyCo.

If everything goes well and Toys-R-Us can service the loan, Bain owns Toys-R-Us for free and sells it or takes it public. If things don't work out, they collected huge management consulting fees for s few years. Bain ran this exact same play on KB Toys with the same (bankruptcy) result.

Re:Toys 'R' Us Founder Charles Lazarus Dies at 94 by ars on Friday March 23, 2018 @11:14AM (#16658966)
So it's basically the opposite of going public?

You use that $5B to pay all the original owners (shareholders), and now have debt instead.