Private Equity Capital Companies, along with Mr. Romney are getting a pretty bad rap these days.
Now if what you know about PECCs is based on watching the movie “Wall Street” or listening to the political retoric, I’m afraid you’re way off base.
Gordon Gekko was a corporate raider, and corporate raiders take over poorly managed companies with high valued under utilized assets, then sell off the assets for a quick profit, thus ending the existence of the company. Private Equity Capital Companies are quite the opposite and Mr. Romney is no Gordon Gekko.
In reality, PECCs are pretty much like doctors who take a personal financial interest in the patient’s full recovery.
Primarily, they take over terminally ill companies that are no longer competitive in their markets and try to bring them back to life as thriving successful businesses once more.
They inject their own capital and management skills to turn the company around. Once, the company is back on its feet and thriving again, they sell the company to another company who has a strong financial interest in continuing the company’s growth and prosperity.
That is how PECCs make their money….they fix up broken down companies that are on their way to closing down, and make them more valuable, and then the sell them to other companies for more than they had initially purchased them for.
They do not buy companies to throw workers out into the street and then go about rifling their desk drawers for loose change.
I know all of this, because I’ve seem the process first hand.
Many years ago I worked for a dying company that was taken over by a PECC (Not Bayne).
For three years, I watched them turn the company around. In the end, almost all of the 500 origninal employees were still there plus a lot of new faces. The big difference was, all of the orignial employees now had smiles on their faces and bigger pay checks to boot. More important, that business is still thriving today.
True, sometimes even the best doctors loose a patient due to unforeseen circumstances or events... and it is indeed a sad thing to hear the painful stories of those 20% who didn’t make it. But believe me, we’d all be a heck of a lot sadder if there were no doctors around to save the other 80% who do make it.
So for those who think it’s a good idea, based on what they heard, to burn down the supermarket because someone is telling them the owners are mean, greedy and making too much money… I strongly suggest you figure out where you are going to get the milk for the kids and groceries for their families after the store is gone...and also you should take a real good look at who is luanching these attacks... before you start lighting any matches.