As the Clear Channel situation gets messier, some who ended up on the sidelines are feeling relieved they didn’t jump in.

Blackstone, part of the bidding group which lost out to Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, feels “OK that we didn’t pursue that deal,” senior advisor Jill Greenthal said at Argyle Executive Forum’s media conference in New York. Greenthal said there were a lot of deals the firm passed on.

“One example that we bid on, is Clear Channel,” she said. “We were offered leverage beyond what we accepted - which would have helped to increase our returns on paper. We were not comfortable that was a prudent way to set the company up… in terms of what would happen in the (economy). So I think we feel OK that we didn’t end up pursuing that deal.”

Not everything is rosy for Blackstone. Freescale has some issues, although Blackstone feels “fine about where we are with it”, she said.  Previously a unit of Motorola before it was listed separately on the stock market, Freescale was bought in 2006 by a private-equity consortium led by Blackstone for $17.6 billion - one of the major covenant lite deals inked.  “Because we have the capital structure that we do, and the good management team that we have in place, we have the wherewithal from a capital structure to be able to re-position the business and invest in it the way we want to,” she said.

Even so, the credit situation is still pretty brutal.

“The credit situation has been unbelievably horrible… It’s loosened up so maybe it’s now, I don’t know, just incredibly horrible,” was Greenthal’s summation.

(Photo - Reuters)