Masters of the Universe

Back in September I noticed a couple of companies which appear to be the centre of a substantial empire, TDK capital and the EG Group, the interest at that time being a pubco called Stonegate, very large and fairly discrete. At that time, never previously heard of. While yesterday I noticed some of the Masters of the Universe. See references 1 and 2.

Now today there is a report in the FT about TDK getting indigestion from its purchase of Asda from Walmart. That is to say, a deal whereby the purchase would be financed by selling Asda's petrol stations to the petrol station part of the TDK empire. We are told that: 'the sale of the petrol stations had been an important part of a complicated series of asset sales and debt deals put together to enable EG Group’s owners to complete the £6.8bn acquisition of the UK supermarket, while using less than £800m of their own money'. Otherwise the miasma of junk bonds, bankers, lawyers and tax havens that the people involved seem to thrive in.

The FT also tells us that supermarkets may be losing their enthusiasm for selling petrol, although for the moment 'fuel retailing is still a useful source of working capital for retailers, who buy large volumes of fuel at advantageous prices and sell it to drivers long before they have paid suppliers for it'.

The wonders of modern business.

PS 1: I also notice today that our fat leader has just hosted a dinner for a very select twenty of said Masters. It seems that nearly all of them were into making money, rather than into making stuff. Finance rather than industry. Which, to my mind, rather reflects the rather sorry state we have got ourselves into.

PS 2: asking Bing for something to illustrate this miasmic post with, it came up with the picture above, 'Sunday morning in the New Cut, Lambeth, 1872', together with the observation that 'Victorian Londoners thought their crowded city was bursting with various foul miasmas'. Miasmas which caused all kinds of unpleasantness. Perhaps they weren't so far wrong after all. Furthermore, Barclay & Perkins, in the middle of the picture, were real brewers, operating at that time in Park Street, just behind what is now the fake Globe Theatre. See reference 3.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/search?q=tdr.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/10/rebooting-your-online-profile.html.

Reference 3: http://breweryhistory.com/wiki/index.php?title=Barclay,_Perkins_%26_Co._Ltd.