COLUMNISTS It is never pleasant to see investment bankers licking their lips. New Look’s position on the catwalk leading to a potential initial public offering will have them positively slavering. In corporate financiers’ fantasies, 2010 is a year of flotations, as private equity firms try to turn deals into dosh for their battered backers. The clothing retailer’s offering could be the first of many, they believe.
But this seems back to front. Some buy-outs carried out before the credit bubble are “in the money”. But if the economy is recovering, private equity ought to be making investments, not selling them, and applying its historic skills by accelerating businesses back to health, to be sold later.
