By Victoria Howley and Douwe Miedema
LONDON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Alchemy Partners' founding partner Jon Moulton has left the company, the private equity firm said on Thursday, as the buyout industry struggles with the aftermath of the credit crisis.
Dominic Slade, who led the firm's buyout business, will take over at Alchemy. Moulton said in a letter to investors there had been differences of opinion between himself and the other partners.
'Alchemy today confirmed that Jon Moulton gave notice of his retirement from Alchemy Partners,' a spokesman said. 'This was somewhat earlier than his previously announced retirement date of October 2010.'
The spokesman gave no further detail and did not say what was behind the departure.
Moulton, who founded Alchemy in 1997, said in a letter to investors that he did not support Slade's plans to convert Alchemy into a specialist financial services firm.
'I do not support this strategy,' the letter, obtained by Thomson Reuters' private equity website peHUB read. 'It's contrary to the positioning we have created with investors and deal sources and wastes a spectacular opportunity in our area of perceived greatest strength.'
To read the letter:
The credit crunch has rocked private equity firms that no longer have access to the heavy borrowing their business model relies on, while the companies they own are suffering in the economic downturn.
Alchemy has held off investing in companies since the autumn of 2008 -- when it acquired Ireland's Noonan Services, a cleaning business -- and Moulton said in May he was in no hurry to start buying again.
Moulton warned at a conference earlier this year that close to a third of the private equity industry's mid-market portfolio companies could fail, as the economic downturn across Europe turned into recession.
(Additional reporting by Megan Davies in New York; editing by David Holmes) Keywords: ALCHEMY/ (douwe.miedema@thomsonreuters.com; +44 (0)207 542 8793; Reuters Messaging: douwe.miedema.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
LONDON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Alchemy Partners' founding partner Jon Moulton has left the company, the private equity firm said on Thursday, as the buyout industry struggles with the aftermath of the credit crisis.
Dominic Slade, who led the firm's buyout business, will take over at Alchemy. Moulton said in a letter to investors there had been differences of opinion between himself and the other partners.
'Alchemy today confirmed that Jon Moulton gave notice of his retirement from Alchemy Partners,' a spokesman said. 'This was somewhat earlier than his previously announced retirement date of October 2010.'
The spokesman gave no further detail and did not say what was behind the departure.
Moulton, who founded Alchemy in 1997, said in a letter to investors that he did not support Slade's plans to convert Alchemy into a specialist financial services firm.
'I do not support this strategy,' the letter, obtained by Thomson Reuters' private equity website peHUB read. 'It's contrary to the positioning we have created with investors and deal sources and wastes a spectacular opportunity in our area of perceived greatest strength.'
To read the letter:
The credit crunch has rocked private equity firms that no longer have access to the heavy borrowing their business model relies on, while the companies they own are suffering in the economic downturn.
Alchemy has held off investing in companies since the autumn of 2008 -- when it acquired Ireland's Noonan Services, a cleaning business -- and Moulton said in May he was in no hurry to start buying again.
Moulton warned at a conference earlier this year that close to a third of the private equity industry's mid-market portfolio companies could fail, as the economic downturn across Europe turned into recession.
(Additional reporting by Megan Davies in New York; editing by David Holmes) Keywords: ALCHEMY/ (douwe.miedema@thomsonreuters.com; +44 (0)207 542 8793; Reuters Messaging: douwe.miedema.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.