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Son Of Billionaire Steel Magnate Plunges To His Death Amid Demise Of UK Industry
Angad Paul, chief executive of Caparo Holdings, had done a lot of things in his 45 years.
He created the world’s fastest road-legal car, for instance. The Caparo T1.
He also executive produced the classic “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels":
Aside from supercars and gangster movies, Paul was, to quote FT, one of the Midlands’ leading industrialists as the head of Caparo Holdings. He was the son of Lord Paul, the 84 year old billionaire steel magnate who's one the UK's wealthiest people. Paul replaced his father as CEO nearly two decades ago. He was married to lawyer Michelle Bonn, 40, in 2005, and lived at his family's home in Marylebone with his parents, Lord and Lady Paul
We're using the past tense here because on Sunday, Paul tragically fell from "high up" at his home in London. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Here's the statement from a Met spokesperson:
“London ambulance service and London’s air ambulance both attended and the man, believed to be in his mid-40s, was pronounced dead at the scene.
“London fire brigade have also been called to the scene to assist with the recovery of the body. The man’s next of kin has been informed, although we still await formal identification. Enquiries into the circumstances of the incident continue but it is being treated as non-suspicious at this stage.”
The timing of the "accident" raises questions. Caparo was placed in administration last month in what was characterized as a "shattering, devasting hammer blow" to the UK's steel industry. For those who might have missed it, The Telegraph reported the following in mid-October:
"The crisis in Britain’s steel industry could be about to claim another victim, with parts of Labour peer Lord Paul’s Caparo empire under enormous pressure.
Caparo Industries, a major producer of steel products with 1,800 staff across 20 sites, was understood to be looking at all funding options over the weekend.
Lord Paul – one of the country’s 50 wealthiest people, with a fortune estimated at £2bn – has a large stake in the privately-owned business through its parent company, Caparo Group.
And then, two days later, there was this (again from The Telegraph):
Britain’s beleaguered steel industry has been dealt a “shattering” and “devastating hammer” blow after Caparo Industries went into administration, with doubts over the future of its 1,700 staff.
The global business, which has about 20 sites in the Midlands as well as operations sites in India and the US, filed for administration as pressure on the steel industry intensifies.
The problems at Caparo, first revealed on Monday by The Telegraph, came ahead of an announcement expected on Tuesday from Tata that it will slash up to 1,200 jobs at its steel plants in Scunthorpe and Scotland. It follows the closure of SSI in Redcar with the loss of 2,000 jobs.
Britain’s largest union, Unite, warned of a “domino effect” in the steel industry, as it renewed calls for the Government to step in to support the sector following Caparo Industries’ collapse.
“This is yet another hammer blow for steel and manufacturing communities already reeling from the closure of Redcar and job losses at Tata,” said Tony Burke, the union’s general secretary. “Ministers need to ask themselves how many more steel firms need to go to the wall before they step in. Failure to act could lead to a 'domino effect’ taking hold across the industry.”
Finally, more color from FT:
Caparo, which comprises about 20 companies, was placed in administration last month, leading to the loss of 323 jobs and the closure of Black Country plants at Darlaston, Dudley and West Bromwich.
Its activities range from the forging and pressing of metal products for aerospace, automotive and other industries. It also produces fastenings, wire, tubes and other accessories.
The UK company is part of a global network of businesses under the Caparo name, with operations in China, India and the US.
In addition to steel, Caparo’s global business is also involved in product development, materials testing services, hotels, media, furniture and interior design, financial services, energy and private equity investment.
PwC, the administrators, said at the time of their appointment that 1,700 West Midlands jobs were at risk.
It isn't difficult to guess how this came about. Excess capacity in China (a topic we've covered exhaustively) and the now ubiquitous exported deflation effectively killed the industry:
Business Secretary Sajid Javid has called for an EU-wide emergency summit on steel. This is due to be held with the next fortnight. At the event he is expected to campaign for European consent to the UK’s early introduction of the energy compensation package and for co-ordinated EU action to stop China dumping excess steel on international markets.
From BNP, earlier this year:
As a reminder, ArcelorMittal just reported a massive loss attributable to the same dynamic. As we noted on Friday, the obvious implication of China's excess capacity problem is that the country will simply export its deflation...
Given that, it shouldn't come as any surprise that the world’s biggest steelmaker suspended its dividend and cut its outlook.
Here's more from Bloomberg:
The world’s biggest steelmaker on Friday cut its full-year profit target and suspended its dividend, putting the blame on the flood of cheap steel from China’s loss-making mills. The market is being overwhelmed with material coming from the nation’s state-owned and state-supported producers, a collection of industry associations said Thursday.
“It is obvious that we are operating in a very challenging market,” Chief Financial Officer Aditya Mittal said on a call with reporters. “This is essentially the result of very low export prices out of China that are impacting prices worldwide.”
The steel industry has been roiled by the slowest economic growth in two decades in China, the biggest consumer.
The flood of cheap exports from the nation has drawn complaints from Europe and the U.S. that the shipments are unfair. Bloomberg Intelligence estimates Chinese steel shipments overseas will exceed 100 million metric tons this year, more than the combined output of Europe’s top four producing countries.
While demand for steel in the company’s largest markets of the U.S. and Europe is recovering, producers’ profits are being hit by slumping prices because China has been pushing excess supply onto the world market as its economy slows.
So again, we're seeing disinflation (the exact opposite of what DM central bankers intended when they decided to expand their balance sheets into the trillions) as global growth and trade enters a new era, characterized by a systemic slump in demand. Here's the damage in terms of the Arcelor's equity:
And here's more from The New York Times on the impact of Chinese "dumping:
“The Chinese are dumping in our core markets,” Mr. Mittal said. “The question is how long the Chinese will continue to export below their cost.”
The company’s loss for the period compared with a $22 million profit for last year’s third quarter.
ArcelorMittal, which is based in Luxembourg, also sharply cut its projection for 2015 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — the main measure of a steel company’s finances. The new estimate is $5.2 billion to $5.4 billion, down from the previous projection of $6 billion to $7 billion.
On a call with reporters, Aditya Mittal, Mr. Mittal’s son and the company’s chief financial officer, said that a flood of low-price Chinese exports was the biggest challenge for ArcelorMittal in the European and North American markets.
The company estimates that Chinese steel exports this year will reach 110 million metric tons, compared with 94 million tons last year and 63 million tons in 2013. ArcelorMittal produced 93 million metric tons of steel in 2014.
Of course when the standing government policy is to roll over bad debt and avoid SOE defaults at all costs, uneconomic producers can and will continue to produce. This means the deflationary impulse ArcelorMittal cites isn't likely to dissipate anytime soon.
So, it would appear that Paul is the latest "casualty" of the worldwide commodity downturn, the global deflationary supply glut, and the habitual exportation of deflation. It will be interesting to see what, if any, impact this rather morbid wake up call has on Downing Street's "courting" of Xi.
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Does 'Tyler Durden' write all these articles? Or do they come from some other source?
There are no stupid questions.
Standard Disclaimer: Then again, there are exceptions to every rule.
I was only curious. I see that the article is 'submitted' by a poster with the handle 'Tyler Durden', and I can also see excerpts copied and pasted from other articles, along with, in this case, pics and graphs, which may or may not have accompanied the excerpted articles. But there seems to be 'commentary' interspersed between excerpts and pics. I suppose this one poster is who is the one posting all this content, along with his opinions, etc? That's a lot of content. Whoever it is, assuming it is one person, and I can't tell, because, well, stupid is as stupid does, whatever, but if it is only one person, they must be tied to their computer somewhere. I hope they are making some money on this deal. I know I wouldn't waste my time doing that. It's bad enough to spend 5 min posting a response :)
Then why bother posting, especially something as dumb as this.
I just read it and I want my 15 seconds back.
Or is my sarc detector battery in need of replacement?
"When you have insomnia, you're never really asleep... and you're never really awake."
The upside is plenty of time for posting articles 24/7.
Rent the Brad Pitt movie "Fight Club" and follow the clues in the movie. All will be revealed in the final scene.
I don't get it. These people at some point had Billions. So what if down the road they "only" have a few hundred million or even tens of millions.
All this assumes the lack of nail guns. Anyone want to fill me in?
Leverage. 5:1? 10:1? 100:1?
They ain't got nuffin but risk.
Follow the money:
Expect a Hostile Takeover soon.
taataa
cant be fun when strangers are happy you are dead. If blankfein, dimon, bernanke, yellen, or the fancy negro yaked, my heart would fill with joy. I can think of a few others, too.
The entire Obama administration comes to mind...
Chasing that pesky purple dragon around will always get you into the strangest prediciments.
Oh you almost caught me!
i love the sound of those 'old british names'...like 'tata'....LOL
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was a good movie with a terrific sound track.
Diamonds are the Queens best friend; I refer to the Kohinoor of Her Majesty's crown; which beats the diamond necklace of PAul's blonde wife.
Saint Peter and Paul are together now but Paul's wife has her diamonds to remind her that when iron falls diamonds stay a gal's best friend.
Somehow I feel I am richer than a billionaire.
Did he just Caste himself off of the roof ? Indians are supposed to be in the steel business anyway ...
So sad...he didn't take another 10 of his peers with him. Some people can't do anything right.
Bunch of child molesting, war mongering cocksuckers.
One way ticket to hell
the wife is to die for
"wake" up call indeed....
Fascinating how the smell of money is irresistable to beautiful women.
Bonn, Michelle Bonn. Maybe the new 007 now that Spectre is a turkey?
You only live twice
Born twice and die once or born once and die twice, with the second being most horrible. Factoid.
Might explain the dive.
I'll give 100/1 that it wasn't the bitch.
I wonder if he was going to say anything about the 'green taxes' that so afflict England?
"the UK's steel industry." or how about "The UK's unicorn industry." Enough to make anyone fall from a "high place"
Used to live in Sheffield, before the Thatcherwitch flew in and exported all the steel jobs elsewhere, while killing the coal industry.
Sheffield was based on steel and coal.
Took a huge hit. People jumped, but not the right ones.
He was quite short.
Nothing the TPP can't fix; he should have waited for Obummer.
From a war fighting perspective, it's amazing to think about Russian or Chinese interests effectively buying in/out these kinds of critical domestic industries outright if nothing more than to make them derelict.
In five years nobody domestically will know how to turn the plant on never-mind all the feeder industries that support it.
AND they want to pass TTIP too.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Er......
That's the plan.
The filthy rich are all in it together. Money and power are their religion and reason to exist.
Countries are what they use as herd control. Set the population of one country against another using whatever will work - race, religion, they shot first (false flags).
Humans are so easy to control.
Maybe the fucker did jump. Losing all his money and power would make him an outsider from his reigion and taken away his reason to exist.
Whatever.
I think any day the earth loses a bilionare is a day the world became a slightly better place.
2billion to 100 million. the horror. i would off myself, too. who can live on 100 mil.
No shit. $100M won't even buy you a modigliani painting.
Remember the guy during the GFC that shot his wife kids dog set his mansion on fire and then shot himself. When you've lived the good life any thing else is intolerable.
Jumping from a building or walking out in front of a freight train after breakfast,either way it's like they say,none of us are getting out of this alive.
Here are some signs of a coming recession.
1. Business loans for M&A not CAPEX.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-15/there-goes-final-pillar-us-recovery-loan-growth-paradox-explained
2. Factory orders continue to drop
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-02/us-factory-orders-flash-recession-warning-drop-yoy-10th-month-row
3. Default risk spikes
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-02/us-financials-default-risk-spikes-2-year-high
4. M&A set record
http://michaelekelley.com/2015/05/29/mergers-and-acquisitions-set-record/
5. Fed sees 2 bubbles
http://michaelekelley.com/2015/02/20/fed-warns-of-two-bubbles/
o Commercial Property higher than pre-2007 level.
http://nreionline.com/finance-investment/cre-prices-are-now-officially-above-pre-recession-peak
o Global Corporate Debt Market hits $5 trillion.
http://fn.dealogic.com/fn/DCMRank.htm
Here is how to prepare.
http://michaelekelley.com/2014/10/16/8-things-to-do-when-recession-happens/
Here is how to get your mind off this stuff.
http://michaelekelley.com/category/humor/
Good luck!
There's a saying in chinese business, WEALTH? RARELY PASSED ON MORE THAN 3 (THREE) GENERATIONS.
1. The father built his empire.
2. His kid enjoys the fruits of his efforts (w/o the need to fights to get to the wealth).
3. Hois grandkids, the one that CONSUMED those wealth to oblivions. This generations don't know how to fights (his father already don't know), and his grandad either has dementia, dead, don't have the right strategy o thios generation, to guides them.
Just watch, how many family business survives for >3rd gen's.
Maybe that's what makes the Rothschilds so successful.
The correct saying is:
"From shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations."
God Damn Christmas lights. I hate them damn things. Oh, one more light looks to be out. I best check it....
Guess rifling thru his pockets on the ground would not do any good, Fuckers don't use cash.
Banks betray industry again. If you lie with a snake....
Jump! Jump! Jump!
.... must be having nerves of steel to do that !
since when is the Caparo T1 the FASTEST STREET LEGAL CAR IN THE WORLD?! that T1 slug tops-out at 205mph, which is 40mph slower than any stock Bugatti Veyron...
was probably the gearhead mafia catching-up with him under the cover of the failings of his family "fortune".
Angad likely jumped but will he experience a Dead Cat Bounce?
I think it's too late for his company to catch a DCB though.
“Ministers need to ask themselves how many more steel firms need to go to the wall before they step in"
- Sure!, we just have to press that red button over there...
One indian down only 1.2 billion to go.
Well, the Mrs. is still around and it is going to be quite some time in the courts.. It is all Britt again.
I've been telling the kids for years about the dangers of eating tacos while pogo sticking on a balcony....now I finally have something to show them thats smart phone friendly........I told you kids about this!
Looks like the dugeon man has been made dispossessed.
Whoops, well the bigest liability was 'dumped'