"Dear Supporter, who gives a flying fuck what you think?"
The good old days, eh? Jason Nisse Thompson's contacts include Chris Akers and Andrew Regan. He also owns Windsor racecourse and is backing Elizabeth Emanuel In June, Richard Thompson was honoured for his contribution to business. Along with luminaries such as John Ritblat, founder of British Land, Mike Gooley of Trailfinders and Simon Woodruffe, the brains behind YO! Sushi, Thompson won an award from accountants Ernst & Young and The Times newspaper as one of London's Entrepreneurs of the Year. It was an irony that the 35-year-old businessman - whose interests stretch from meat packing to designer frocks via television and football - should get the award this year. After all, in the last 12 months, his business interests have lost at least pounds 30m. In addition, one former associate has been convicted of fraud and another has had a warrant issued for his arrest. Later this month former associate Allan Leonard is due to appear at the Old Bailey in London for sentencing after admitting to 15 charges of fraud, forgery and false accounting. The 49-year-old grain trader and former racehorse owner was a close family friend of Thompson, having worked for his father, David, since 1987. Muirpace, the company that Leonard ran, was a subsidiary of Thompson family businesses. Its losses from Leonard's gambles on the derivatives market are estimated at pounds 28.5m. Speaking publicly for the first time since Leonard's conviction, Richard Thompson told The Independent on Sunday that the Muirpace scandal was disappointing, but not a tragedy. "It does not make a big difference to the overall picture," he said. "We've drawn a line under the losses. If you look over the years we've made more money out of Allan Leonard than we lost." While Allan Leonard's problems have had a direct bearing on the Thompson family businesses, Richard Thompson says he is no longer associated with another colourful business character - Andrew Regan. Regan, who shot to fame in his attempt at taking over the Co-op Wholesale Society a couple of years ago, is presently in Monaco. If he returns to the UK, the Serious Fraud Office has said it would arrest him on charges of stealing pounds 2.4m from a public company, the food manufacturer Hobson, that he used to run. And who introduced Regan to Hobson? None other than Richard Thompson. "I was involved with Hobson for seven years, from 1986 to 1993," says Thompson (Regan arrived in 1991). "I stayed for two years after he took control and then left." There is no suggestion that Thompson knew anything of the alleged bribing of Co-op officials which form the core of the Serious Fraud Office case against Regan and three others involved in the Hobson scandal. Thompson happily admits he had been associated with quite a few colourful characters in a business career of little more than a decade. The story starts with Richard's father, David, a Smithfield meat trader who joined Harry Solomon to form a company called Hillsdown. The business was a fantastic success, building up a portfolio of food brands stretching from Typhoo tea to Buxted chickens, and interests in timber, property development and insurance. David Thompson sold out of Hillsdown a little before the stock market crash in 1987, pocketing around pounds 180m. David Thompson then set about investing his fortune. Part was used to back Allan Leonard's Muirpace, while another part was used to build up the Cheveley Park Stud, one of the most successful racehorse breeding operations in the UK. Cheveley's successes have included the Grand National winner, Party Politics, and the Royal Ascot favourite, Exclusive. A couple of years ago David and Patricia Thompson joined the parade with the Queen at Royal Ascot. Leonard was also a keen investor in bloodstock. Among his horses was Top Cees, a highly successful racer on both flat and national hunt courses that he sold to a partnership of Robert Sangster and Michael Charlton, the Monaco-based investor who was a business partner of Andrew Regan. The third way David Thompson invested his money was to set his son up in business. The first deal he backed was to purchase Queens Park Rangers, the football club. Richard became chairman, as well as the target of protests by fans during a five-year reign. "They gave me a hard time," he says. "There is no way I would ever be the chairman of a football club again." The Thompsons sold their share of QPR in 1996 for pounds 10m, passing on the problem to Chris Wright, the founder of Chrysalis, who promptly led the club into relegation. Though the investment did not make a huge amount of money, it whetted Richard Thompson's appetite for the business of football, and he backed a bid by a team led by former stockbroker Chris Akers to take over Leeds United. The vehicle for the deal was a small firm called Storm Group. It had been involved in making cartoon programmes for TV and owned the broadcast rights to Paddington Bear. The bid for Leeds was accepted even though it was not the highest offer on the table. There were rival bids from a Norwegian group and Conrad, a company backed by Michael Edelson, who recently shot to fame as the brains behind the high-flying Knutsford Group. Though Thompson joined the board of Caspian, as the company was then renamed, he was not particularly involved in the management of Leeds United. However, he did secure the services of George Graham, the former Arsenal boss, as United's manager. The two both had flats in the same development in Hampstead, north London, though Thompson said he knew Graham from his time at QPR. Early optimism about Leeds United soon dissipated as Chris Akers failed to deliver on some grandiose promises. A year ago Thompson joined with Jim Driscoll, a long-time investor in Storm Group, to oust Akers and install Peter Ridsdale as chairman. Shortly thereafter Thompson left the board of the group, now called Leeds Sporting. While Thompson says he made money out of his involvement in Leeds, other recent investments have not been so successful. His main public company interest now is the chairmanship of WhiteCliff Film & Television. This was originally a food processing company called Whitchurch. Thompson became involved when he sold it RG Quality Foods, a burger-making business. RG was hit by the BSE crisis, fell into losses and was then bought back by Thompson as part of the deal which turned Whitchurch into WhiteCliff. Some investors have voiced concerns about the deal with Thompson, RG and WhiteCliff, arguing the Thompson ended up being paid pounds 2.4m for the film business, some of which had hardly been trading and others which were heavily loss-making. Thompson says that no major investors had complained or lost money, though WhiteCliff shares have slumped from a high of 65p to just 30p. "Nobody is interested in the meat business today," he says. "We now have prospects. We want to be as big as possible." Apart from WhiteCliff, Thompson is still looking for deals. He and his father are currently trying to sell Windsor Racecourse, and are in talks with Arena Leisure about a deal. PGA European Tour Courses, the golf course owner which Thompson founded with Mark McCormack of IMG, is looking for a buyer after a dramatic fall in value. Thompson recently turned down the chance to take a stake in West Bromwich Albion, the first division football club now run by Jim Driscoll. But he has agreed to back Elizabeth Emanuel, the dress designer best known for Princess Diana's wedding gown, who is trying to re-establish herself in business after a bruising experience with Joe Bloggs founder Shami Ahmed. Thompson describes himself as a corporate catalyst: "I have no particular expertise, except the feeling for a deal and the knowledge of the stock market. I have no other particular skills." Except for one. His family's money. Chris Akers, when asked if he had enough money to buy Leeds, famously answered: "I don't. But I'm in business with the Thompsons, And they're as rich as God." > Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:40:33 +0000 > From: edmorr...@gmail.com > To: mark.humphr...@blueyonder.co.uk > CC: leedslist@gn.apc.org > Subject: Re: [LU] Good old days > > > I don't think I could be any more devastated when we sold Batty to > Cashburn. > > I wrote to the club to complain (and got a letter back!) > > What did the letter say? > > Ed. > _______________________________________________ > Leedslist mailing list > Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist > To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org > > PETE CASS (1962 - 2011) Rest In Peace Mate _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org PETE CASS (1962 - 2011) Rest In Peace Mate
