Private-equity firms from Bain Capital to Onex Corp. are raising loans through companies they own to pay themselves dividends at a pace that exceeds even the frothy days leading to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Borrowers controlled by buyout firms are on pace to raise more than $11.5 billion this month through dividend deals, a record and up from $3.6 billion in April, according to Standard & Poor's Capital IQ Leveraged Commentary & Data. Beats Electronics LLC, the headphone maker founded by rapper Dr. Dre and Geffen A&M Chairman Jimmy Iovine, is meeting lenders tomorrow to seek $700 million in such loans, according to people familiar with the situation who declined to be identified.

An increasing number of borrowers are taking advantage of investor demand for relatively high yields as the Federal Reserve keeps benchmark interest rates at about zero for a fifth year. Rather than refinancing debt at lower interest rates or funding expansion, dividend loans do little more than add leverage.