In the long history of disastrous leveraged buyouts, a place must be reserved for Travelodge, the 500-strong budget hotel chain which has escaped administration only because its landlords approved one of those company voluntary arrangement proposals where they agree to suffer a lot of pain rather than excruciating pain. Or, to use the estimate of KPMG, acting as supervisor of the CVA, affected landlords will get 23p in the pound versus 0.2p in administration. Yes, that's the sort of choice that gets a 96% majority.
It is not, however, an outcome that draws an explanation, let alone an apology, from the folk who imposed the calamitous high-debt financing structure on Travelodge in 2006. That outfit was Dubai International Capital. DIC long ago wrote off its investment in Travelodge and is reckoned to have lost £400m, which perhaps explains its reluctance to rake over the coals.
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