Ari Blaut, David Spitzer and Ben Kent co-authored an article in The M&A Lawyer titled “Preferred Equity as a Growing Part of Acquisition Finance for Financial Sponsors.” The article explored the growing use of preferred equity in acquisition financing, outlining key features of preferred equity instruments, credit considerations resulting from differences from traditional debt instruments and related tax considerations in light of U.S. tax reform. “The ultimate benefit of preferred equity is that it allows financial sponsors to increase effective leverage in a non-dilutive fashion without impacting the credit profile or regulatory treatment of the senior debt being used to finance an acquisition,” Ari, David and Benjamin wrote, going on to say that transaction participants “should take care to fully understand the risks associated with any transaction involving preferred equity and make sure to have a clear picture of the ways in which these risks differ from those that would arise from using a debt instrument.”