Private equity firms are hitting the U.S. leveraged loan market at the fastest pace in years to fund shareholder payouts with about $8.6 billion of dividend recapitalization deals launched this month. That’s the most since $9.9 billion came in all of September 2017, the last time the market saw activity of this magnitude, and puts the month on track for one of the largest for these types of deals since the last financial crisis, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The dividend...