Sycamore Pockets $1 Billion From Deal That Amazed Wall Street

Stefan Kaluzny has made a ton of money -- and drawn his share of critics -- buying down-on-the-heels retailers using lots of debt.

Now, Kaluzny’s Sycamore Partners is under scrutiny again, after completing a deal that left even seasoned leveraged-buyout experts agog. On Tuesday, Sycamore pulled off a $5.4 billion refinancing of Staples Inc., which it bought in 2017, that funded a staggering $1 billion dividend to the private equity firm.

Stefan Kaluzny

Photographer: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

The dividend is among the biggest in recent memory, even in a world where buyout firms routinely extract large sums for themselves after taking companies private. Combined with ...