An Apology To Lone Star Funds Investors

Dime a dozen.

For a dozen years, you were led to believe that former executive Randy Work was contributing something special to the management of your money. After all, the Dallas-based p.e. firm sent him all over the world on your behalf, with stops in Tokyo and Hong Kong before he finally landed in London, a year before he retired in 2009. Surely, a man worth more than $200 million brought something unique, something rare, something worth all of that money to the table.

We regret to inform you that he apparently did not. For unlike The Children’s Investment Fund founder Chris Hohn, who got to keep most of his fortune in his divorce because a London judge deemed him a “financial genius,” another London judge has found that just about anyone could have done Work’s job at Lone Star, including his wife.

The Works, who met in California, were married for more than 20 years and began their relationship with “similar and modest incomes,” the judge said….

Randy Work’s business achievements aren’t “exceptional” enough to be considered a special contribution, as his wife made a “personal sacrifice” to move to Japan and raise a family, Holman said.

Ex-Lone Star Executive to Split Assets After Divorce Ruling [Bloomberg]
Private equity executive ordered to pay £72m to ex-wife [FT]