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Turnaround king eyes Kroll
Nick Goodway, Evening Standard01.05.08
Veteran turnaround consultant David Buchler is heading a move to buy Kroll Associates, the world's largest corporate security firm, of which he was once European chairman.
Buchler is reported to have funding from private-equity group BC Partners, and has approached Kroll's owner Marsh & McLennan with an offer valuing the business at between $1.5 billion (£754 million) and $1.6 billion. Marsh paid $1.9 billion for Kroll in 2004.
The buyers recently made an offer to Marsh chief executive Brian Duperreault but no formal talks are going on. Marsh is believed to have received other informal offers but says Kroll is not up for sale.
Kroll, the pioneer of corporate investigations, has expanded into computer security and corporate turnarounds.
Buchler runs his own recovery firm, DB Associates. He was a partner at Arthur Andersen before founding the firm Buchler Phillips. He went on to chair Kroll and then formed DB Associates.
