Ronnie Cohen, Gordon Brown, Israel, There is no Israeli Lobby

Ronnie Cohen may blush a little as he explains to his friend Gordon how the Vulture Captalists build companies and increase employment at the JPR shindig at No. 11 Downing Street in June 2001. ( 3 months after his neighbour Tony had agreed the invasion of Iraq with Dubya)

In November 2005 his Apax Partners took over struggling Somerfield plc in a £1.1 Bn. all-cash take-over offer with Barclays Capital (they already owned 12.4%) , and Iranian-born Robert Tchenguiz and his younger brother Vincent who fled from the Shah in 1979. They have just 4% share of the UK food market

The star studded management team were happy to quickly unload the old Kwik Save just 3 months later, in February 2006 with 171 stores and 4,000 employees to BTTF the optimistically entitled Back to the Future consortium led by Peacock Group's Chief Executive Richard Kirk which includes Paul Niklas, the former managing director of Formica,

Apparently the ghouls at Grant Thornton are waiting in the wings to sweep the mess up in the morning ...and maybe sell yer man Ronnie one or two of the decent stores left from the mess.

Somerfield is Headed by John Lovering as Chairman who is also and Chairman of Debenhams and led several consumer-focused private-equity transactions including Fitness First, Laurel High Street, Homebase, Odeon Cinemas, Birthdays Group and Peacock. He was Chief Operating Officer at Tarmac plc and Finance Director at Sears plc. and bu februaru 2006 he had appointed a strong team of retail mega stars.

CEO Paul Mason (42) was the European President of Levi Strauss and previously CEO of Matalan Plc (Jan 2002 - March 2003) and President and Managing Director of Asda Wal Mart (2000 - 2001) and had been with B & Q.

Colin Smith ,Trading and Marketing Director (50) who joined from Tesco where he had been for along time.

John Cleland Retail Director (40) was the Commercial Managing Director of B&Q since January 2005. Prior to this he was Senior Vice President Operations at Wal-Mart Japan and Retail Managing Director at Wal-Mart UK .

So far we are in classic Vulture Capital territory, bring in the management, get rid of the dross, pay for the acquisition with a sale and leaseback on the property (pic billionaire Robert Tchenguiz) of sweat the labour (lower the age, shorten the working week - and incidentally increase number of employees - and happil reduce employment liabilities), increase number of lines and sales of own brand and then say in 2008 launch on the stock market with a value twice what you paid for it...and the men who made it happen collect a whopping capital sum ...luvvly jubbly

Let's hope they can fully fund the Pension fund with its £120 Mn. deficit at take over time.

As for the 4,000 kicked out at Kwik Save tommorrow morning ...don't look at me guv ..I'm just building a business.

Students of Sir Ronnie's career may like to search on this site for Apax ..perhaps the intriguing interest they have in their interest in CETV , half of which they bought from Likudist Ronnie Lauder the Estee Lauder / Clique parfumier, obsessive Klimt and SCheile collector who own TV stations across Eastern Europe and who might well make a fit with ITV one day.... or maybe that in 1998 Mr Cohen, received the Jubilee Award by the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. This is the highest tribute ever awarded by the "State of Israel" in recognition of those individuals and organizations, that through their investments and trade relationships, have done the most to strengthen the Israeli economy.

Allan Barkat, managing director of Apax Europe (Israel) told The Jerusalem Post. (Nov 14 2000) "Over the last six months, Apax Partners has invested a total US$100m. - $25m. from the Apax Israel fund, and the rest from other Apax funds - in 10 Israeli companies, including Compugen (genomics-based drug and diagnostic discovery company), OnePath(provider of fiber optic transmission systems), and Kamoon(management software products in the financial services.)," he said. "I don't think any other fund, local or international, can make this claim for the period from May until now. Certainly, no other fund has as strong a commitment to Israel as Apax.".

Apax also announced at the time that it planned to invest US$600 million in Israeli companies over the next three years.

Tuesday 5th Robert Tchenguiz buys 3% of Sainsburys.