Founder’s buy-out falters

Private equity firm Lazards Private Equity Partners has withdrawn its support for Tim Waterstone’s bid for the Waterstone’s book chain, it has been disclosed.

Last week, the entrepreneur and founder of the chain revealed he would be making a£280 million offer for the bookseller, now owned by HMV, funded by Lazards.

A condition of the offer was that HMV Group should not acquire specialist bookseller Ottakar’s. If successful, Waterstone proposed to chair the bookseller, and appoint Penguin boss Anthony Forbes Watson as its chief executive.

He founded Waterstone’s in 1982 and then sold it in 1993 to WHSmith for£47 million, before buying it back in partnership with EMI and becoming chairman of HMV Media in 1998. He ended his most recent involvement with the book chain in 2001.

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