Bonderman's Texas Pacific Group

[seacue]

I find it interesting that the talk about Ryanair, Gate Gourmet, etc., usually doesn't point out the ownership interests of the Texas Pacific Group [TPG], headquartered at Reston, Virginia, near Dulles airport.

TPG owns Gate Gourmet,
a substantial interest in Ryanair - TPG's David Bonderman is Chairman of Ryanair,
55% of America West Airline - and all its Class A stock,
a substantial interest in Continental Airlines,
Burger King,
MGM movies,
Ducati Motors,
Seagate Technologies,
etc.

There is an article about Texas Pacific in the Business section of the 3 October 2005 issue of the Washington Post (free registration required washingtonpost.com)

sc

[neidin]

He is also a lead backer of Wizzair - who Ryanair are trying to crush and also is a big shareholder in Tiger.

[Re-Heat]

Funny, but I have seen quite a bit of it, but I have seen a lot of the FT recently - 55% of us in the private sector work for a private equity owner ultimately. They run massive funds rather than directly owning the companies themselves - they are usually partnerships.

[WHBM]

Bonderman has a lot of the US airline industry "hard men" in at Texas Pacific as advisors, though they seem to be giving him more problems than the solve. Dave Siegel, ex CEO of US Airways (and little-loved by anyone there at the time) was the one who popped up recently as CEO of Gate Gourmet (how are the mighty fallen), and made the infamous "always a strike in August" etc comments about BA on television - amazed GG were not sacked on the spot by BA after that. Note he disappeared from view afterwards.

Even Frank Lorenzo, ex-Continental and Eastern CEO is there at TP behind the scenes, doubtless pulling strings. Guess he and Bondie got to know each other through their corporate raider activities. Am I right that Lorenzo was banned by the SEC from being a director of an airline ? Well, he's just one step away.