Beware private equity asset-strippers
I’m no economist but it seems to me that the great boom we are alleged to have witnessed as part of the global economy is a fraud. Bill Bonner, writing in a recent issue of Money Week appeared to have summed it up succinctly when he asked why isn’t the money from this ‘boom’ trickling down? “While a ‘normal’ boom lifts wage earners, this one seems to have cast them down”, he wrote. “Why? It does not lift up all boats; it lifts only the luxury yachts. Why is that? Because it is an asset-price boom, not an economic boom.”
Those showing most interest of late in the asset-price boom have been the international private equity groups, such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (once described as “the barbarian at the gates”), whose interest in taking over companies seems to centre on stripping out the assets of a company for a short-term profit and re-selling the corpse.
As we go to press KKR and other private equity groups are threatening to take over Boots the high street chemists in a move which could again threaten jobs and render the company vulnerable to asset stripping. The most important asset in the eyes of the private equity vultures is not what a company makes (they are in a minority in Britain) or what it sells, but the freehold properties that the companies own. This was the reason for the drive by several private equity companies to try and acquire the supermarket J Sainsbury. Like Boots, Sainsbury is regarded by the private equity people as a property company that also has shops. KKR may have given up their attempt because of the resistance of the Sainsbury family, who still have 17% of the equity, but Robert Tchenguiz, the Iranian property tycoon is still showing interest.
In its youthful days when it had the pioneer spirit now passed to the BNP, the Labour Party would have blocked the private equity asset-strippers head-on. Today, they are in cahoots with them. This was revealed by Peter Oborne writing in the Daily Mail 03.03.07 in an article headed “Worrying Questions Over Brown’s Private Banker”. This concerned the financier Sir Ronald Cohen who has been one of Gordon Brown’s most trusted informal advisers over the past decade and who has suddenly retired from business. According to Oborne, he will shortly emerge from the shadows of the City to become one of the most senior members of the inner circle of the next Prime Minister. “Sir Ronald is the founder of the private equity business, which makes massive profits out of buying, restructuring and then selling on great chunks of British business and which controls about a quarter of the country’s private industry”.
Further to this, back on February 27th the Daily Telegraph revealed that despite combined sales of more than £12 bn and operating profits of more than £400m, in total the 10 largest private equity-owned companies in the UK received a £11m corporation tax credit from the exchequer, and five of the companies paid not a single penny of UK corporation tax in 2005/6.
At least some politicians in Holland, unlike here, are showing concern at what is going on with private equity and hedge funds groups. They were accused of “plundering” Holland at a tense session of the Dutch parliament, as leading politicians called for new laws to curb their activities. “This ransacking of the country is not welcome”, said Elly Blanksma, a senior MP for the Christian Democrats.
The Battle of Batchelor’s iPod
Last month marked the 25th anniversary of the recapture of the Falklands. The heroism of our Paras, Marines and Guardsmen has become the stuff of legend; as also the actions of the Royal Navy - and the merchant Navy - who lost five ships and over 60 men in achieving a victory against the odds.
Move on 25 years and the results of several Tory Government cuts followed by ten years of New Labour’s disembowelment of what was the world’s third most powerful navy, led to the embarrassing fiasco of Iran’s 15 Royal Navy hostages. Although I never heard a shot fired in anger (apart from A.A. guns when as a boy my home was on the receiving end of a Luftwaffe bomb) I served in the Navy for nearly three years and just cannot imagine sailors of the immediate post-war period acting so spineless as some of the 15 hostages.
Perhaps we can feel some sorrow for Arthur Batchelor, as a product of our time, whose role in the boarding party was apparently to carry his iPod (perhaps he misunderstood the meaning of ‘party’) while his surrogate ‘Mummy’, Faye Turney, steered the inflatable as a sign of our Navy’s political correctness and equal rights. Unfortunately she steered the inflatable to the wrong side of the Indian cargo ship (carrying cars, not weapons) where it could not be seen from H.M.S.Cornwall. Once in captivity, we do not know if Batchelor’s tears were due to his captors taking away his iPod or perhaps his teddy bear. We can sympathise with Leading Seaman Faye Turney’s fears in captivity that she might be raped and/or shot, but as a woman with a young child she should not have been on “front line” duty.
The BNP and Identity has earned a reputation for its defence of our servicemen and women operating with inadequate equipment in two war zones which are not in Britain’s interests and serve only Blair’s egotism. On this occasion my personal opinion, as a former Naval rating, is that the fawning behaviour of some of the 15 after the Iranians had agreed to release them rather let the side down. This criticism is particularly levelled at the Royal Marines Captain (but at least he didn’t flog his story to the press). He has probably not heard of the old Naval dictum: “There is no such thing as a bad ship’s company, only bad officers”.
The captured crew from the Cornwall were products of the modern service culture which seems to give priority to Human Rights and Health and Safety Regulations. What is more, this has stultified the actions of the Navy’s officers, both in Whitehall or at sea. The outcome was that a British Commodore, Nick Lambert, had 12 ships under his command in the gulf, including fast patrol boats that could enter the shallow water that the frigate Cornwall could not, and could easily have out-gunned the Iranian naval forces on that day, yet no action was taken.
The problems that have made us an international laughing stock may well stem from Whitehall and the MoD. But it was the Defence Secretary, Des Browne, who made the biggest cock-up by giving permission for Faye Turney and Arthur Batchelor to sell their stories to the media. This happened on the day that four Army personnel, two men and two women, were killed in action in Iraq. Des Browne’s actions, and inactions, are all rather reminiscent of Gilbert and Sullivan’s light opera HMS Pinafore.
I thought so little, they rewarded me
By making me the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
To return where I started, namely the commemoration of the Falklands campaign, for the first time for most of us we read in detail of the heroism of Falklands farmer Trudy McFee, then aged 30. Holding a pair of white gloves behind her back, she led our Paras to the easiest route to attack Mt Longdon. Additionally, she organised volunteers with tractors and other vehicles to carry supplies for our troops over the boggy and treacherous ground, sometimes under shell fire from the Argentineans. She was awarded a commendation by the Task Force commander, Admiral Sir John Fieldhouse. But no sign of an MBE or OBE, as given out liberally to faded pop stars, time-serving trade unionists and failed politicians over the past 25 years. Nor was she offered £100,000 for her story by the media.
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