Sunday, January 31, 2016

Triumph Overpaid Carlyle Group for Vought Aircraft

Philly.com reported:

Triumph reported an $88 million fourth-quarter loss after writing off $229 million of the $1.4 billion it paid Carlyle Group for Boeing supplier Vought Aircraft Industries in 2010.
Triumph wrote off 16.4% of Vought's purchase price.  Besides paying too much for Vought Triumph inherited the company's promise to create 3,000 new jobs and employ 6,000 total in Texas through 2019. 
Governor Rick Perry, intent on pushing public money to corporate friends and supporters, gave Vought $35 million without the company formally applying for funds.  Attorney General Greg Abbott, now Texas Governor, prevented the public from knowing the most basic information about his boss' corporate slush fund.  Yes, neither party is in jail for being an abysmal shepherd of public funds.

Carlyle owned Vought took the $35 million in 2004 and by 2005 knew it wouldn't come close to reaching their Texas job promise.  South Carolina won Vought's Boeing Dreamliner production.  Vought's CEO under Carlyle told Dallas Business Journal in 2007 that the job promise was worthless, yet no one pursued repayment.

By the time Carlyle sold Vought in 2010 it paid back a mere $900,000 to Texas taxpayers.  Triumph paid back $9.2 million since paying too much for Vought.
PEUReport began covering Vought's employment promises and abject failures in 2008

There are numerous posts on this blog that detail aspects of Vought's operations and hollow employment promises.  Yet, they still hold $25 million in public money a mere four years from the end of the agreement.