the times | Thursday February 3 2022 43Business
executive of JP Morgan, acknowledged
last month that some of his company’s
bankers, traders and executives were
receiving “a lot more” in compensation.
“If that squeezes margins a little bit for
shareholders, so be it,” he said.
Dimon, 65, was not complaining,
however. “I think wages going up is a
good thing for the people who have the
wages going up,” he said. “CEOs
shouldn’t be crybabies about it.” His
total compensation rose by 10 per cent
to $34.5 million in 2021.
David Solomon, chairman and chief
executive of Goldman Sachs, was paid
$35 million last year. James Gorman,
who leads Morgan Stanley, received
the same amount.
Betsy Duke, a former Federal
Reserve governor, warned that the
largest bonuses were “not going to be
spread like peanut butter”. Women and
minorities were more likely to receive
less “due to where they are organisa-
tionally”, she said.ply chain problems and the Omicron
variant weighing on confidence.
The KPMG research reported that
more than 120 companies were listed in
the UK last year, raising £16.8 billion,
while there was a record number of lis-
tings in America. The eurozone figure
was at its highest level for several years.
KPMG attributed the flurry of listings
to owners of “high-performing busi-
nesses” seeking to take advantage of a
buoyant stock market and healthy
multiples.
The number of private equity sales
fell from 178 in 2020 to 162 in 2021,
though this still surpassed 2019’s levels
of exit activity. Deal values, however,
increased by 13 per cent, from £13.6 bil-
lion to £15.4 billion.
Boyers said: “Business and investor
confidence picked up swiftly towards
the end of 2020 and this optimism,
along with a rush to finalise deals before
the anticipated changes to capital gains
tax, drove a flurry of activity.
“There is also a noticeable and
growing imbalance between the num-
ber of new investments and exits being
made and there will need to be a
correction at some point, though this is
unlikely to happen while the market
remains particularly volatile.”Unsecured creditors have been left
£30.4 million out of pocket from the
pre-pack administration of TM Lewin
that resulted in the closure of all of the
shirt company’s shops.
TM Lewin was bought in May 2020
for about £25 million by Torque Brands,
an investment vehicle led by James
Cox, founder of Simba Sleep, and
backed by Allan Leighton, chairman of
The Co-operative Group. Only seven
weeks later the company was put into a
pre-pack administration that shut all
its 66 stores and resulted in 600
job losses. At the time, Cox said
that lockdowns had meant the
business was no longer viable
in its present form and that it
would focus on an online
model instead.
A recent progress report
from Resolve, the insolvency
firm, said that Torque, as a se-
cured creditor with a floating
charge over the company worth
£28.4 million, would receiveWe are all being overpaid,
Jefferies boss tells bankers
Callum Jones
US Business CorrespondentTM Lewin creditors set to lose their shirts
about 79 per cent of its money back.
However, employees were still owed £1
million in outstanding wages, holiday
pay and pension arrears.
Unsecured creditors, which include
landlords and suppliers, claim that they
are owed £30.4 million, but the admin-
istrator said they would have to share a
£600,000 pot. A spokesman for Torque
said that “as it was a historical
matter we will not be com-
menting”.
TM Lewin, founded in
London in 1898, is known for
selling the first button-up shirt.
During the First World
War, it supplied the RAF
and British Army with
uniforms and the
brand claims to have
sold more than 70
million shirts in its
history. In recent
years it has beenpopular with City workers. Pre-pack
administrations are regarded as con-
troversial when they relate to connect-
ed parties as it means that the same
owner can continue to control a busi-
ness shorn of its unwanted liabilities at
the expense of creditors. Restructuring
experts praise it as a fast-track process
that keeps businesses alive, but there
has been increasing criticism about a
lack of transparency. Regulation is
done by the “pre-pack pool”, an inde-
pendent body, but referral is voluntary.
Torque Brands, which has Robert
Schneiderman, a founding partner of
Hilco, the turnaround firm, as its re-
structuring chief executive, has been on
the lookout for more deals since acquir-
ing TM Lewin. It was outbid for Jaeger,
once part of Philip Day’s empire, by
Marks & Spencer.
The shift to home working in the
pandemic has led to a decline in de-
mand for men’s tailoring and smart
shirts. Industry chiefs say that sales re-
main significantly below pre-pandemic
levels even with the easing of corona-
virus restrictions.Ashley Armstrong Retail EditorOne of the longest-serving executives
in American banking has claimed that
every worker on Wall Street is paid too
much as top firms dish out their biggest
staff payouts in a decade.
Rich Handler, 60, chief executive of
Jefferies, told Bloomberg: “Every one of
us is overpaid. When you go home and
look at yourself in the mirror, every one
of us should count our lucky stars. It’s
not just in 2021, I’ve said the same thing
in very challenging pay periods as well.”
A dealmaking boom last year led to
high advisory fees for many financial
institutions, while a battle for talent has
prompted managers to dig deep to
retain or attract high-performing staff.
Bonuses have surged as a result —
according to reports by as much as
50 per cent at Goldman Sachs — signif-
icantly increasing banks’ costs.
Jamie Dimon, chairman and chiefThe demand for
TM Lewin’s shirts
remains lowBuyout firms spent a record sum
acquiring mid-sized British companies
last year, with takeovers defying uncer-
tainty caused by the pandemic to hit the
highest level ever.
Both the number and value of deals
rose, with 803 transactions worth
£46.8 billion completed last year,
according to an analysis by KPMG,
representing increases of 40 per cent
and 36 per cent, respectively, compared
with 2020, when lockdowns put a brake
on dealmaking.
Activity surpassed its pre-pandemic
peak, with volumes up 20 per cent and
deal values up 15 per cent on 2019 levels,
according to the accounting giant.
The British private equity market,
including larger transactions such as
the takeover of the Morrisons super-
market chain, also expanded last year.
There were 1,545 deals worth £159.2 bil-
lion completed in 2021, up from 1,117 in
2020 and 1,246 in 2019.
Jonathan Boyers, head of KPMG’s
UK corporate finance practice, said:
“The UK’s private equity market saw a
dramatic return to form in 2021, as con-
fidence returned and pent-up demand
was released.
“The momentum we saw at the end
of 2020 continued to gather pace into
the first half of 2021, and while activity
dipped slightly throughout the rest of
the year, the levels maintained were
still a record high.”
Boyers said that dealmaking had
been particularly strong in the tech-
nology, media and telecoms sectors,
technology-based business services,
consumer goods and retail.
KPMG said the allure of technology,
media and telecoms businesses “held
strong” thanks to remote and hybrid
working, with 2021 deals up by 55 per
cent. “In line with heightened activity
in online retail and direct-to-consumer
sales, consumer goods and retail, deal
activity also saw an increase,” it said.
Buyers warned that “some clouds
have began to gather on the horizon” at
the end of last year, with inflation, sup-Takeover numbers
achieve records in
confident market
Simon DukeCadbury World from Mondelez
International, which was split off
from Kraft after the American
company bought Cadbury in 2010.
Cadbury World was opened in
1990 on the Bournville chocolate
manufacturing site at a cost of
£6 million and was formally
launched by John Major when was
prime minister. It has become one
of the West Midlands’ biggest
leisure attractions, hosting 600,000
people a year who can learn about
the founding Cadbury family, noted
Quaker philanthropists, and the
history of chocolate.
When it takes over the site in the
summer, Merlin intends to spruce
up the attraction before considering
a more significant “multimillion-
pound” project for the 2024
bicentenary of Cadbury, which
moved manufacturing to the
Bournville plant in 1879.
Mark Fisher, 53, Merlin’s chief
development officer, said that there
were no immediate plans to raise
prices, although this would be
dictated how much the company
invested. “The whole thesis is about
growing Cadbury World,” he said.
Merlin, which was founded in
1999, runs 137 attractions, 22 hotels
and half-a-dozen holiday villages in
24 countries. It was floated in
London in 2013 and briefly made itinto the FTSE 100 index of Britain’s
biggest listed companies. However,
in November 2019 it underwent a
£6 billion buyout led by Kirkbi,
which owns the Lego toy empire,
working with Blackstone and the
Canada Pension Plan Investment
Board.
Merlin will assume day-to-day
control of Cadbury World and its
150 employees and will hold brand
usage rights for Cadbury World in
Britain.A Cadbury World chocolatier creates a
replica of Apollo 11 for a display in- The attraction also features a
model version of Coronation Street
Larger private equity deals included
the high-profile takeover of MorrisonsJACOB KING/PA; JON LARGE