Meanings of reverse breakup in English

With U.S. regulators flexing their muscles, reverse breakup fees have become more widespread.

The company also said Avis' unwillingness to offer a reverse breakup fee was problematic.

But now, it's not just the big financial services deals that require reverse breakup fees.

Other institutions are asking for reverse breakup fees, whereby the buyer agrees to pay the seller some compensation if the deal falters.

The lack of a reverse breakup fee in its previous bids has been one reason Dollar Thrifty cited for its repeated rejections.

Policyholders typically pay a premium of 10 percent to 15 percent of the reverse breakup fee, insurance executives said.

But Dollar Thrifty rebuffed the bid citing uncertainty over Avis' ability to close the deal, and its unwillingness to offer a reverse breakup fee.

About 37 percent of merger deals included reverse breakup fees last year, up from 27 percent in 2004, according to FactSet MergerMetrics.

The number of financial services deals with reverse breakup fees jumped to 24 in 2012, from 13 in 2009, Thomson Reuters data shows.

There were 10 financial services deals with reverse breakup fees above 5 percent over the past two years, up from six in 2009 and 2010.

The terms of the deal also features an unusually rich reverse breakup fee of $2.5 billion, according to a source close to the situation.

Reverse breakup fees had been rare in finance industry deals until recently, bankers say.

Reverse breakup fees averaged around 5.9 percent of a deal's value last year compared with 3.7 percent in 2004.