Bain Capital: Too Smart For Their Own Good?

Bain Capital has had better weeks.

The NYPost reports the Boston private-equity firm was a lead investor in three leveraged buyouts — Toys ‘R’ Us, iHeartMedia and Guitar Center — each of which experienced a financial collapse in recent days.

The Mitt Romney-founded firm co-led the 2008 buyout of America’s biggest radio station owner, iHeartMedia, and on Thursday the San Antonio, Texas, company filed for bankruptcy protection.

In 2005, Bain was a lead investor in Toys ‘R’ Us, which announced Thursday it was liquidating its 730 stores, putting 33,000 jobs at risk.

And the 34-year-old PE shop was also the lead investor in 2007 in Guitar Center, the musical instrument retailer that this week proposed a debt refinancing that, if accepted by bondholders, would be considered a default, credit agencies said.

Twenty-two percent of Bain LBOs from 1984-92 went bankrupt, Applebaum wrote in her book, “Private Equity at Work.” That is a far higher percentage than the industry average, according to the book. It happened under previous leadership.

The $26 billion iHeart buyout seemed a stretch, even at the time.

Bain, and Thomas H. Lee Partners first agreed to buy iHeart, then called Clear Channel, in 2007.

But as the deal was set to close, the Great Recession began.

Lenders financing the buyout — including Citigroup and Morgan Stanley — moved to terminate the deal.

Bain and THL took the lenders to court and forced the buyout to be completed.

Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners control 68 percent of the voting stock of iHeartMedia, according to the company’s most recent annual report.