RSS feedsDavid Buchler, described by colleagues as the ‘doyen’ of UK corporate restructuring, will push once more to buy Kroll, the business he once helped run after having two advances ignored.
Sources close to Buchler say that he will work for more ‘substantive talks’ with the current owners, Marsh & McClennan, after the US insurance broker announced a $440m (£225m) writedown on Kroll and signalled that parts of the business could be up for sale.
An offer by Buchler at the beginning of this month, with the backing of private equity group BC Partners, was reported as reaching $1.5bn but was rebuffed by Marsh.
Earlier efforts by Buchler in April also met with no reaction.
Marsh bought Kroll in 2004 for $1.9bn. Observers have described Buchler’s efforts as an ‘enormous’ development for the UK restructuring industry, though it would be the biggest deal Buchler has so been involved in.
Buchler is understood to believe that Kroll has suffered from under-investment and that it could be a much bigger business than it currently is.
Sources say he would invest in Kroll’s scale, should his latest bid prove successful. Observers point to the departure of key personnel as a major difficulty facing the business.
Buchler is well known to senior managers within Kroll, including Simon Freakley, who worked with Buchler at Buchler Phillips in 1995.
Freakley was chief executive of Kroll until a recent sideways move.
According to Marsh’s 2007 annual report, the risk consulting and technology business, operated through Kroll, saw revenues grow by only 2% to $995m.
A statement in the report said: ‘Kroll has been a source of volatility and disappointment. We are looking at the businesses of Kroll and working to determine how the parts of Kroll relate to each other and how they fit with the rest of Marsh.’
Buchler currently runs turnaround specialists DB Consultants, based in Mayfair, London.
He was a founder of Buchler Phillips, which then merged with Kroll, where Buchler was chairman for Europe until 2003.
