Jon Moulton - the boss of Alchemy Partners, the private equity firm that owns the Tattershall Castle and Inventive Leisure chains of managed pubs - has unexpectedly quit the firm he founded.
In a letter to investors he also launched a personal attack on Dominic Slade, his chosen succesor.
Moulton is understood to have stepped aside following a bitter boardroom bust-up over strategy - which saw the industry veteran sidelined by the other partners, in a move led by Slade.
Slade, who joined the firm in 1998 and is Alchemy’s managing partner, private equity, has now been unanimously voted by the firm’s partners to become the group’s managing partner.
In his letter, Moulton said: “Events and performance mean that I am afraid that I am unable to recommend that Dominic succeed me.”
He added it was with profound regret that “Alchemy is not what it was” and that if he could do it again he would do it better.
He said: “I owe investors an apology for quite a few things. Together with my partners past and present, I made too many investment and people errors. The state that the firm is now in leads to the view that the best solution for investors and the partnership is an early orderly Plan [the portfolio of assets] termination.”
It is not clear if Moulton is considering starting a new firm.
He is well respected by Alchemy’s investors which include major banks, pension funds, fund of funds, university endowments and high net worth individuals.
He has previously criticised the level of debt within the pub industry, describing it as “unsustainable”.
Last year he said: “The capital structures for a lot of pub companies have become desperately inappropriate in a falling market.
“Debt is everywhere, profits are diving and consumer confidence is in the toilet. And it will get worse.”
Alchemy Partners also previously owned InnSpired, a tenanted group of about 1,000 pubs, which it sold in 2004 to Punch for an £85.4m profit.
The company was also behind a move to split TCG Acquistions, formerly Tattershall Castle Group, five ways in a bid to make it easier to dispose of pubs.
