This was quite an event. Corporate lawyers sparring into the early hours. Our man was one of Haggart’s ‘Officer Cadets’, Andy Rees. He led the Eversheds team. Rupert, his opponent from one of the top city legal practices, led the bank's team. By contrast to the BL Corporate Finance team, the BL Corporate Legal team was swift and efficient doing all their work prior to the Completion Meeting. Rupert meanwhile, was over-dressed for the occasion in his city slicker uniform of blue pinstripe suit. The pinstripes were too wide and too yellow. Rupert was a public school prat, division one. Wise to his own world but not to others. Andrew, by contrast, had bummed around in East Africa for some years and had only qualified in law in his late 20s. The meeting went on and on. Andrew conceded a particular point and I asked for an adjournment.
I asked: "Andrew, did you have to concede that? That could cost us." Andrew replied: "It’s unlikely and if it came to fruition, you can sue Eversheds.” However, the main thing was, Rupert was missing more important issues whilst concentrating on minute detail. The fact was I knew he had tickets to the opera that evening and was s**t-scared of letting his wife down! I was pushing the tricky points to the end, so he was in a rush and conceded or didn’t spot key items. The Law is, indeed, a gladiatorial contest!
All substantive matters were agreed by mid-evening. Rupert was nicely late for the opera. There was however, a slight snag. The delays resulted in my having to sign over Power of Attorney to Don Walker to complete the process in my absence. I was off to Japan the following day on the Unipart fact finding tour of the Japanese Motor Industry.
In fact, it wasn't until three days later in Japan that it occurred to me to telex (yes no email in those days, less characters than Twitter). To Don Walker I enquired, "Have we bought company?" Answer (next day) "Yes, all is well."
We were a good team. Jim, John-Henry, Don and Joe handled the communication and initial transition from BL ownership to an independent company with our customers, suppliers and our colleagues. Don and Joe handled customer communication. Doug Gamble, Purchase Manager, handled supplier communication.
All employees turned up for work on the due date under Rearsby Automotive Ltd, the resurrected name change from Rearsby Components.
A new world beckoned.
The Rearsby MBO was the first in BL and one of the very early UK examples. It lasted a non-typical long period of 14 years to July 1996 when I, the sole surviving working member of the MBO, left when the business was sold.