A private equity fund which focuses on making investments by acquiring a company or a unit with the use of large amounts of financial leverage. In typical buyouts, a group of investors buy large equity stakes in target companies and then borrow the rest of the acquisition price from financial institutions, the public, and mezzanine lenders. The debt percentage to capital varies from case to case (in typical transactions it is set at 70% of the total capital, while in extreme cases it exceeds 90% or reaches as low as 50%). Buyout funds typically search for mature companies that generate operating cash flows enough to service the debt.

This fund is also referred to as a leverage buyout fund.