Knowledge of the dark side for hire
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One of the most curious appointments of last month was that of Adam Applegarth as an adviser to the European fund of US private equity firm Apollo.
Apollo invests in the kind of distressed debts Applegarth helped to originate when he was managing director of Northern Rock.
Applegarth was fired two months after Rock was nationalised and Apollo may have hired him for his knowledge of the darker side of its mortgage book which will be up for grabs when it is split into good bank and bad bank soon.
The idea has clearly crossed the mind of Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable, who has expressed frustration at “this guy who destroyed his bank and is now making money on the bad loans he helped to create”.
As Cable adds, you couldn’t make this stuff up.
