The 1984–1991 Experience in Retrospect

It is an amusing coincidence that at the turn of the decade, the most important private equity players should make wholesale changes in their management teams. In hindsight it is now clear that this is one of the recurring themes of private equity: it is typical to have a fairly high level of churn among the players, with individuals switching from one house to another, and management teams leading their own buyouts. But at the beginning of the 1990s this was all new. The stimuli behind the changes of management team were of course very different. The move of the Matuschka portfolio to the stewardship of Bain & Company was clearly a symbol and symptom of the failure of the Matuschka Group, and in part, the MatCap subsidiary which had built up its private equity investments. Over at Barings Capital, the collapse of Lignotock gave rise to a change of team, but the fund remained the same. Jens Reidel came in to provide a new start for Barings Capital in Germany, but without the legacy of a portfolio, given that the single investment made by his predecessors had gone to the wall. At CVC, the situation was far less traumatic. Max Römer and his team made the decision to spin-off, and their decision was met with a generous spirit by their colleagues at Citigroup in London. Steve Koltes took over the CVC German portfolio, which was in good order.