Few individuals have careers spanning the worlds of business, sport and music. Even fewer have travelled a journey as exciting and varied as that of our chairman, David Buchler.
Those of us who know David well and have worked with him over much of that journey often forget what a great ride it’s been. A new interview with restructuring lawyer and podcaster Stephen Phillips of FreiLibertas Law is a great reminder.
The podcast and YouTube video are entitled Opera, Football and Financial Restructuring with David Buchler, reflecting the extraordinary scope of our esteemed colleague’s career over six decades.
David tells how, during a brief spell selling suits in London’s Oxford Street while he pondered his career post-A levels, he was introduced to Percy Phillips, co-founder of Bernard Phillips & Co. The accountancy firm was to the West End what the celebrated insolvency practice Cork Gul represented to the City.
So began a long career as a ‘company doctor’. As David explains: “The medical analogy is relatable in our profession. Ideally, we help businesses to survive. We repair damage. Sometimes you don’t succeed and you lose your patient.”
A flight home from New York while working as a partner at Arthur Andersen convinced David that he wanted to build his own smaller business. Only on landing at Heathrow did he learn from his neighbouring passenger’s briefcase tag that he’d been next to a fellow partner all along.
In 1988, he launched Buchler Phillips with his long-time business partner Peter Phillips, undertaking several high-profile corporate recovery assignments, including the receivership of Robert Maxwell’s private estate. David had already met Maxwell when the disgraced media mogul was considering buying Tottenham Hotspur, although conflicted by his ownership of Oxford United.
Much has been written about David’s spells on the board at Spurs and many are familiar with his involvement at the English National Opera, followed by the launch of his own well-respected opera blog. Stephen Phillip’s podcast, however, delves into two lesser known situations which have given David great satisfaction.
Baltimore Technology had flown too close to the sun in the dotcom boom at the turn of the millennium. Inflated to FTSE 100 status and employing thousands over Europe, its eventual collapse left David and his team with a battered and delisted company to pick up and carefully dust down. Restructured and relisted as a cash shell at 15p, it was sold for 23p a share only six months later. Even more impressive by way of uplift is listed turnaround investor Volvere, which David chairs. Its shares have rocketed from 1150p to 1850p in 12 months as a result of, according to the Investors Chronicle, “an uncanny ability of the Landers (founders) and David Buchler to spot opportunities.”
All these activities are just the tip of the iceberg, as Stephen Phillips discovers in his interview. We won’t spoil it any more – just listen, watch and enjoy!
Buchler Phillips is a UK based independent boutique firm with an impeccable Mayfair heritage, specialising in corporate recovery, turnaround, restructuring and insolvency.