Posted By LambChop
From The Daily Beast:
Bill Bain, founder of Bain Capital with founding partners Mitt Romney, T. Coleman Andrews III, and Eric Kriss finally broke his silence this week with an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast. Bain’s message to the class warfare critics: “The unfair attacks are not worth responding to.”
The article points out that, “Since the presidential campaign began, tens of millions of dollars have been spent heaping dirt on Bill Bain’s name. Bain Capital—the investment firm envisioned by Bain and led by his protégé, Mitt Romney—is likely the most-attacked private company in the history of American politics.”
Bill Bain told The Daily Beast, “Bain Capital was founded in 1984 to create value. The founding partners took risk in starting this venture, but succeeded in raising their first fund and in investing it well to create value for their investors.” And create value they did. For example the years when Romney was CEO (1984-1998) Bain Capital produced about $2.4 billion in gains for its investors, on about $1.1 billion invested, according to The Wall Street Journal.
While Bain Capital’s primary purpose is to generate shareholder value, through “information and management driven investing.” Romney’s point has been that the lion’s share of successful activities of Bain Capital involved repairing and ultimately growing the companies in which it was invested. Success stories like Staples and Sports Authority.
Liberal critics (and some of Romney’s Republican challengers during the primary) accused Bain of “vulture capitalism” - the left’s childish descriptor of leveraged buyouts. Bill Bain’s response? “Business is a risk-reward proposition,” says Bain. “For over 28 years, Bain Capital has invested in many great success stories and some failures.”
As one former Romney colleague, Bill Achtmeyer, wrote in Monday’s Boston Globe, “Two men can lay claim to the success of Bain: Bill Bain for starting it, and Mitt Romney for saving it.”
When Bain & Co., the aging parent, was on the verge of death in 1990, Bill Bain once again turned to Romney, now to take over the company he had built. Romney returned as interim CEO, for a salary of $1. After a radical restructuring—and a round of debt-forgiveness from the FDIC—the consultancy survived. Romney returned to Bain Capital, while Bill Bain left the company for good.
Comments