Pacific Brands

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Texas Pacific, Blackstone, CVC, Carlyle, Pacific Equity Partners, Apollo.

Until two years ago, these fearsome private equity predators stalked the planet, preying on the weak and growing fat. National icons trembled before them.

In Australia, they devoured Myer, Bonds, Harvey World Travel, Repco, Cleanaway, the Nine Network and half of Seven. They almost got Coles and, most spectacularly, Qantas. Overseas, household names such as Chrysler, Reader’s Digest, Burger King, Toys-R-Us, Tommy Hilfiger and Madame Tussauds fell to the private equity money men. (Some have since escaped.)

Continue reading "Beware, the barbarians are back at the gate" »

IT was stirring stuff from ACTU president Sharan Burrow this week: ``How can the CEO of Pacific Brands take home her salary while she sends 1850 workers and their families to the poverty of unemployment? Shame.’‘

You’d need a heart of stone not to feel something for the hundreds of workers likely to lose their jobs. And you wouldn’t be alone if you reserved a special kind of anger for the actions of Pacific Brands.

But, really, does Sue Morphet, the reviled chief executive of the company behind Bonds and Berlei, deserve all the blame?

Continue reading "Sue Morphet, Australian businesswoman of the year" »