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Not long before he acquired a sizeable stake in Debenhams, the former bankruptcy lawyer turned private equity baron David Bonderman decided to do some celebrating.
From care homes to high street shops, the steel industry and even vital defence firms, no corner of British business is safe from private equity raiders.
While the rest of the country has been battling the threat of Covid-19, buyout barons have been having a field day.
They have picked off household names at bargain prices and piled yet more money into their bulging coffers. This month alone, private equity predators have targeted four FTSE 250 firms in a £7billion assault.
The targets include property firm St Modwen and infrastructure group John Laing. Even before the pandemic, corporate Britain was littered with the corpses of once-proud companies that ended up as hollow husks after stints in private equity hands. The virus proved the last straw for some big names, including Debenhams.
It was hoped a small amount could be recouped for the Department for Transport (DfT) at a time when the pandemic has wrecked the state s finances.
But papers released by auditor KPMG show Greybull lost £25million from the administration process, which was completed last month.
As a result the controversial turnaround group will not contribute anything at all to the eye-watering bill, which cost around £550 per passenger.
Marc Meyohas, Greybull s boss and co-founder, had said in a leaked letter to Parliament s transport committee that it had a moral obligation to hand back cash if it made a profit.
The Civil Aviation Authority was forced to charter 34 planes from the likes of Easyjet and Qatar Airways days after Monarch went bust.