The Financial Post reports in its Thursday edition that car battery maker Clarios International launched a loan deal on Wednesday that will go toward paying a $4.5-billion dividend to its private equity owners -- one of the largest such payouts on record (all figures U.S.). A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that the Wisconsin company plans a $2.5-billion dollar-denominated term loan and an $800-million-equivalent-euro term loan. The debt launch comes after the company shelved plans for an initial public offering. The company is expected to raise a further $1.2-billion of debt by tapping high-yield bond investors shortly. The bond is likely to launch toward the end of the loan syndication process, which closes on Jan. 15. The new issuance will push Clarios's debt pile to $12.5-billion. Its current debt pile is about $8-billion. The proceeds will finance a distribution to shareholders, including Brookfield Asset Management and the Caisse, the big Quebec pension fund. A dividend recapitalization, where sponsors pile debt onto a portfolio company in order to finance a payout, is a common private equity strategy used to meet return targets when a conventional exit via a sale or an IPO proves impossible or unattractive.