Coach, Gap, Sturm Ruger Among Merrill Lynch Takeover Candidates

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- As the drama over the attempt by Dell to be taken private by a consortium of investors for $24.4 billion mounts, some analysts are bracing for a new leveraged buyout wave that could see high profile companies like Gap and Symantec find their way into private hands.

The last LBO wave crested in 2007 as credit markets began to freeze and overleveraged banks around the world fell into a state of crisis. Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts now foresee a new wave building as a result of cheap stock valuations, easy money and a revival in some key finance markets.

Such a scenario could put large-cap firms across the retail, technology and industrial space into private hands, as firms such as Blackstone , Carlyle Group , KKR and Apollo look to put billions in investor money to work.

According to a screen by a team of Bank of America Merrill Lynch quantitative analysts, retailers as visible as Gap, Coach and Ralph Lauren could be attractive take-out candidates, given their relatively high free cash flows and manageable debt positions.

In the industrial space, names like C.R. Robinson , Joy Global and Northrop Grumman could be buyout targets, while tech specialists Symantec, Computer Sciences , BMC Software , NetApp and Garmin could also be taken private, according to the BAML analysts.