Inquiry into private equity funds: Treasury Committee session

The Treasury Committee invited leading private equity players for a grilling today.

In March this year, the Treasury announced an inquiry into private equity tax, and today's was the second evidence session organised by the Treasury Committee. The first took place on 12 June, and reportedly led to the resignation of the chief executive of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, amidst claims that he had not been robust enough in defending the industry's corner.

So today's meeting was interesting for all sorts of reasons, not least the expectation that the much-maligned private equity industry would finally come out fighting for its honour. And that it did.

The industry was represented by executives from four of the biggest private equity groups, who rejected claims that they were involved in asset-stripping companies in order to line their already bulging pockets. Not only that, they warned that there was a danger that aggressive tax rules targeted at them could lead to the UK being not so favourable a place to invest. I wonder if the Government is listening. The issue of the UK being conducive to business and investment has been raised so many times in the past year. I have reported on a few occasions on this blog about companies talking about moving abroad to escape the oppressive tax and regulatory burden. So far, none have done so, but that does not mean it is any the less likely.

For more details on how the proceedings went, check out Helen Thomas's splendid blog over at the Financial Times. She attended and liveblogged the session.