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Jon Moulton's shock resignation | 4 September 2009
A great scoop from Amy and the guys at private equity magazine Real Deals: they've got hold of Jon Moulton's resignation letter, and seemingly before big guns like the Telegraph. Moulton founded Alchemy Partners as a upper-mid-market turnaround shop in the late nineties, and since then he's carved out a name for himself as the nation's PE figurehead.
Perhaps most famous for the deal he didn't do - he was denied the chance to buy Rover, which went instead to a group who had no idea about turning it round but managed to pay themselves handsomely while it went bust again - Moulton was nevertheless a highly effective, straight-talking accountant of the old school. I interviewed him about six years ago and thought he was articulate, direct, fair and trustworthy - not bad for the PE industry!
That makes his departure all the more shocking - although the openness and directness of the resignation letter are not so surprising. He reveals that he's fallen out with fellow board members - whose own limited deal-doing record he exposes - over a shift in strategy from turnarounds to deals in the financial services sector.
Moulton is a loss to the industry. Although many a management team feared his no-nonsense approach (he told me that he fired around 60% of the FDs of portfolio companies they invested in!), the turnaround market is poorer for his departure. If I saw a chance to generate massive operational gains by rescuing a battered business, I know which backer I'd have wanted.
Happy retirement, Jon.