Daily Mail, 24 Nov 2020, Roadside Recovery Firm AA Banks on £218m Private Equity Rescue

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-8979017/AA-banking-218m-private-equity-rescue.html quotes ShareSoc Director Cliff Weight who questions whether PE funds opportunistically sell their assets at inflated prices:

Cliff Weight, director of small shareholders campaign group ShareSoc, said the AA’s performance would raise further questions about private equity-backed floats in future.

He said: ‘In 2014 the private equity firms decided that they were better off selling the AA rather than holding on to it, after loading it up with almost £3bn in debts. It was floated with all the encouragement of the financial services industry and investment bankers. What has followed is another sorry tale, that echoes similar experiences with Saga and Aston Martin.

‘Investors have endured six years of pain – during which £1.2billion of value has just evaporated. It is because of these sorts of experiences that the private equity industry is going to find it more difficult to attract investors for these companies in future.’