Bain Capital Credit is leaving nobody in doubt. Its business with Jon Adgemis’ heavily indebted property empire, Public Hospitality Group, is over.On Friday, Street Talk reported a rescue deal that has been negotiated between the former KPMG rainmaker and the private equity giant’s special situations division had fallen over after PHG failed to meet several conditions of the contract.
PHG owns a string of pubs in Sydney, including The Strand Hotel and Noah’s Backpackers hostel at Bondi Beach, but has been teetering on the brink given its enormous debt pile. Bain and Sydney’s Madigan Capital had put together a $500 million refinancing for the hospitality group before it all went south.
At the weekend, however, those close to PHG have been assuring anyone who will listen – from the tradespeople working overhauling the pubs to the crew on Adgemis’ yacht – that things were back on track with Bain. The buyout giant, according to those people, were simply trying to squeeze everything they could out of PHG.
That is, apparently, not the case. A Bain spokesman told Street Talk on Sunday: “PHG has not complied with the terms of the agreement, so the agreement is now at an end.”. And lawyers acting for Richard Gazal told the Supreme Court in NSW in late March that the businessman had extended a “very substantial” personal loan to Adgemis.
What happens next at the Adgemis empire – which earlier this year added Sydney diner Alpha, which is owned by the Hellenic Club, to the portfolio – is anyone’s guess.has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.is a co-editor of the Street Talk column.