It’s the greatest magic trick of any downturn. Get a bank to lend you money to buy back a loan that it has been forced to sell because you borrowed from them it at such a cheap rate in the first place.

Enter private equity. The consortium that owns TDC is buying back €200m (£157m) of the loans that funded the deal at a discount, while PAI recently bought back second-lien debt from its buy-out of Lafarge’s roofing business.