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Management Buyout (MBO): a buy-out where some or all of the existing management team take a significant share in the ownership of the business.

Margin: a measure of the reward arising out of the difference between linked transactions: buying and selling, borrowing and lending, etc; the return which is obtained from these activities.

Mezzanine Debt: it sits between senior debt and equity in the capital structure of a business. Often a high-risk form of finance, it is subordinated to the senior debt, so that if the borrower gets into financial difficulties, the mezzanine debt is unlikely to be recovered. It has the characteristics of debt but it may carry a right to shares as a way of providing some form of recompense to the holder in the event of default. The term originally referred to debt financing which gave the lender an equity stake, or had the possibility of conversion into equity. It has more recently been used to describe any middle layer of debt in leveraged buyouts, “below” the senior debt and “above” the equity, whether or not any equity rights are attached to the debt. Such debt may be fixed rate or floating, secured or unsecured and it is common that the loan is bullet repayment rather than amortising.

Money Market: a wholesale market for the buying and selling of money. Money market paper is predominantly negotiable and traded just like any other product. Maturities are short-term (less than a year).