Phones 4 u gone bust

[geared]

Oooh, its the network's fault. Oooh is the Capital Venturists fault.

 

Well actually:

 

BC Partners, the private equity vehicle that bought Phones 4u in 2011, has come under fire in some quarters for failing to safeguard the retailer's future.

 

As noted by the Financial Times, it has been criticised for pocketing a special £200m dividend paid by Phones 4u last autumn, after the retailer borrowed the cash leaving it with crippling debt on its balance sheet.

 

The move allowed BC Partners to recoup its original investment plus interest, after Phones 4u issued a bond on the Irish Stock Exchange last September

 

So last year the parent company had P4U issue a £200m bond and trousered the lot to cover their initial outlay, P4U was saddled with a crippling amount of debt and was going to fall sooner or later anyway.

 

The question is did the networks know this, and pull away before the ship went down and potentially damaged them in the process or was the mass flight of network providers a separate event??

[Fudbeer]

Phones 4 U have only themselves to blame.

 

Borrowing £200m then paying it all out to themselves as a divi when the company was already heavily in debt while beneficial to the private equity group was disastrous for the company.

 

Sadly as usual its the staff who suffer.

[geared]

I'm guessing it's the private equity firm who were pulling the strings on that particular deal, probably nothing to do with P4U as I imagined they stripped/paid off all the old management when they bought the firm.

[Fudbeer]

Private Equity firms certainly seem to have some questionable practices.

 

Just look at what happened with Comet.

[The Joker]

Why do you need an enquiry to find out that cutting out the middle man is cheaper for end consumers?

 

Not true. See post #24

 

Who on Earth was daft enough to buy from Phones4U?

 

This idiot. See post #24 again

[Guest sibon]

Not true. See post #24

 

 

 

This idiot. See post #24 again

 

You're too harsh on yourself:)

 

I've never managed to find a CW or P4U deal that beats dealing direct with the networks. I'm a pretty simple fella though. A decent iphone, plenty of data and minimal calls is all I want.

[Fudbeer]

Cheapest route even with latest smart phones is to buy the phone then go sim only @ about £10 a month or less.

[The Joker]

You're too harsh on yourself:)

 

I've never managed to find a CW or P4U deal that beats dealing direct with the networks. I'm a pretty simple fella though. A decent iphone, plenty of data and minimal calls is all I want.

 

Ah well, you and I are totally different customers then!

 

I know that an iPhone with large data plan will cost several times more than what I'm paying for my Galaxy S3 on Vodafone's cheapest monthly contract, so I expect the networks would be falling over themselves to keep you as a customer.

 

Whereas I too am a very simple fella (some may unfairly call me a cheapass) and am happy to be costing the networks more in monthly administration than they make out of me in a contract.

 

Let me tell you a story:

 

I'd been a Vodafone PAYG customer for nearly a decade and was playing hardball when moving to a monthly contract. They wouldn't budge on lowering the price of the phone of my choice, so I threatened to switch providers and requested my PAC code...

 

They gave me the PAC code without a moments hesitation.

 

That's how much they value my custom