PRIVATE EQUITY

Private equity does to a businesses what the US government did to Iraq? 

In 2003, private equity 'fat-cats' bought Debenhams stores in the UK.

They 'stripped its assets'.

The fat cats sold the stores, leased the stores for high rents, collected huge dividends of £1.2 billion, and crippled the future of Debenhams

The private equity 'fat-cats' were TPG, CVC Capital and Merrill Lynch 

TPG Capital is a US investment firm 

The TPG co-founders David Bonderman and Jim Coulter are US billionaires. 

How private equity fat-cats triggered Debenhams' downfall

"Private equity has infested the British high street for two decades, with stores often ruthlessly milked for profit then put into administration.

"Restaurants and pub chains came in for similar treatment.

"One of the most toxic episodes until Debenhams was the case of Comet, once a big name electrical goods chain.

"It was taken over by private equity buyers in 2012 for a token sum. Months later the company, whose history dated back to the 1930s, collapsed with the loss of 7,000 jobs. 

"The estimated cost to the taxpayer was nearly £50million in lost tax revenues and redundancy payments."

How Debenhams never recovered from its brutal private equity era