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Show Grand Canyon Trust Director Buys Burger King By Toni Thayer David Bonderman, board member of the environmental group The Grand Canyon Trust, bought the Burger King franchises fran-chises in December 2002 through his Texas Pacific Group, a leveraged buyout firm. According to the telegraph.co.uk, the online newspaper of the London Telegraph, in their Dec. .14, 2002 issue, "David Bonderman once said that the best time to invest is when there is blood on the streets. He certainly pounced on a limping victim yesteVday, forcing Diageo to accept $760m less for Burger King than his Texas Pacific Group agreed to pay five months ago." The San Francisco Business Times, Feb. 28, 2003 article on the buyout stated, "Texas Pacific's success with complex transactions involving distressed dis-tressed companies and its quickening quick-ening pace of activity last year makes the firm the San Francisco Business Times Dealmaker of the Year for 2002." Bonderman is indeed a wheeler and a dealer, labeled by the Forbes "Money List" as one of the six most active global investors in 2000. Business Week's Oct. 22, 2001 international interna-tional business article says he is "globetrotting" and happiest in an investment climate of "rock-bottom "rock-bottom valuations and dis- tressed companies eager for saviors." sav-iors." "To make a real killing, Mr. Bonderman needs to find fat for investors to feast on in a stock market flotation. It will have to be a whopper of a turnaround. Diageo has been trying to sell Burger King for two years," explained the telegraph.co.uk. The article goes on, "It thought it had snared $2.3 billion bil-lion in July but events since have given the business a grilling and Mr. Bonderman is too finely-tuned a predator to let the opportunity slip. Like any good hunter, he was able to sniff out weakness in his prey." Burger King's American market mar-ket has been soft with customers turning to healthier food and franchisees in-fighting. "After agreeing the initial deal with Texas, Diageo had to choose its options from a limited menu. It couldn't seek out other bidders until the year-end because of an exclusivity arrangement. But fed-up investors wanted a fast deal," stated the London publication. Bonderman still has his work cut out for him. The article goes on, "Yesterday, they got the action they craved and the shares rose 4.5pc percent. Mr. Bonderman's venture capitalists, capital-ists, however, have now got to digest their hearty meal if they want a (laming hot sale in two or three years' time." |