2e2 investors pull in bigshot beancounters to pore over books 2e2's financial backers have brought several seasoned beancounters into the debt-laden business, The Channel can reveal. Sources told us that Lynn Mawdsley has gone in as CFO to replace the previous group FD Simon Burt. She describes herself on LinkedIn as a "turnaround director". It is also believed that Simon Poulton, who …
Well, not sure these new revelations amount to much.
A cynic might argue that it is normal banking practice to locate a company that's fast growing and acquisitive, but sailing close to the wind. Feed the addiction with some senior debt attached to covenants and warrants, let it build up a stable of probably viable businesses, and sooner or later it will probably breach the covenants. Then you run it through a pre-pack with a tame "turnaround" director and some well rewarded accountancy firm, exercise the warrants, and lo and behold, the bank suddenly owns some saleable assets mysteriously worth more than the senior debt, but the shareholders and any junor and trade creditors find themselves with nothing. In due course the bank look to arrange a favourable exit to a trade or PE buyers, and often end up lending them a similar sum of debt as the original business. So they get the true value of the equity in their pocket, deal fees, and roll over a similar sum in ongoing commercial lending. Smooth.
What's changed? A few bums on seats, maybe, but more crucially the banks' "special situations" team have turned a very nice profit by elbowing out the vanilla commercial banking people. That's how to earn your bonus. Of course, for the customers and suppliers who lose out, or employees, that's tough, but those City boys are the engineroom of the economy, aren't they, and we'd better keep them sweet.
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