WMG’s PE owners recouped most of their investment within a year

Evidence

Shortly after the sale, the new owners paid themselves a dividend of 350 million of Warner's cash; later that year, they assembled more debt and paid themselves another 680 million. Since the acquisition included $1.25 billion of equity capital, the investors had already recouped most of their investment within a year. When taking the company public in 2005, Bain and the others had sold enough shares to have effectively tripled their original investment. — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 190