Sixers owner, Romney backer Marc Leder's Philly layoffs
Of Jevic, Aluminum Shapes, Paperworks, and low taxes
Sixers owner, Romney backer Marc Leder's Philly layoffs
Joseph N. DiStefano
Sixers owner Marc Leder, host of the newly famous private equity conclave in which GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney depicted Obama backers as government-dependent parasites, has lots of reasons to support Romney:
As an owner of the Boca Raton-based buyout firm Sun Capital, Leder collects millions in annual investment fees can be taxed at the lower U.S. capital gains rate (15%) instead of income taxes at the usual top U.S. rate (35%). Tax reformer David M. Walker (the government's top accountant under Bush and Clinton) and others have called for equalizing those rates, which would cost investment managers like Leder and fellow Sixers owner Josh Harris of Apollo Global Management many millions.
Leder’s company buys troubled industrial firms at discount prices, consolidates or sells operations, and tries to repackage and re-sell what’s left at a profit. They have laid off many hundreds of Philadelphia-area workers in recent years. I have written about some of Sun’s local transactions.
In 2008, Sun Capital laid off 1,000 nonunion drivers and workers at a company it owned in South Jersey, Jevic Transportation, as I later noted here.
Around the same time, Sun bought another South Jersey firm, Aluminum Shapes, as I reported here. Initially, Sun managed without layoffs, but Sun shut down production lines in the ensuing consruction recession, and has since consolidated the operation with its own Canadian aluminum fabricator, who refuses to say how many still work for the old Shapes operations in Pennsauken and Northeast Philadelphia.
Sun also owns the venerable Manayunk paper mill now operated by Paperworks, which, after shutting, splitting and selling other assets, was reorganized earlier this year.
Private equity firms typically collect 1-2 percent of the value of their clients' investments, plus up to 20 percent of profits above a nominal target. It can be a spectacularly lucrative business, and managers like Leder may well hope Romney keeps it that way.
These slugs who leech off the careers of REAL "working" americans are the true freeloaders in this country. Well. when you pretend to pander to a backwards, ignorant "base", playing on their bigotry and ignorance for votes, while really pandering to the top 1/10th of 1%, you have little rope to walk on. When you have a dense, neuron-challenged idiot lacking a speed bump between his plasticine-coiffed head and his Bain Capital-sized mouth, apparently it's enough rope to hang yourself with. Hey Mitt, there's room in Dukakis' tank for you on your way to Goldwater town.— CiceroSpuriousDeodatus- Jeez Joe, you off your meds today? Sun, Bain, buy firms that are already sinking. Are you making an argument that any of the firms you mentioned would have survived otherwise? Only the strong survive, be it banking, transportation, manufacturing or the newspaper business. Look into your own employers bad business practices, every sale drawing less and less of a price. They won't change their liberal slant and then wonder why circulation is bottoming out. And someday a company like Bain or Sun will buy the paper out and sell off the assets. So who's gonna take responsibility? Nobody on your executive floor, they will just whine more about being bought out and liquidated by the 1%. You see it coming, you know it. And it will happen regardless of who is in office.— jimmymack
- I can't wait till Jimmmymack gets laid off, oh yeahh he is probably very rich or can't find a job whole— teachmyway
- Hi Jim, I am indeed med-free, today and generally. Re "private equity" or buyout firms, Leder has every right to back Romney because he believes he and other p.e. managers might continue to qualify for favorable tax treatment for millions in carried interest, or for any other reason. It's a separate question as to whether it's fair or helpful for buyout fund managers to enjoy what amounts to favored tax treatment. Philly like any other town loves buyout firms when they 'save' big employers (e.g. Carlyle, with some state assistance, reopening Sunoco's former Gulf and Arco plants in Philadelphia.) Unfortunately the companies Sun Capital has backed in our market seem to have gone the other way. To look at it the way you suggest, if these firms are dying anyway, why give their undertakers a lower tax rate? Joe D.— Joe D
- Jimmy is right.This man buys business that are sinking.Hence the reason he bought the a losing basketball team and bout them to a decent standing last year. Your facts in this blast are impressive.But the sad fact remains from a sports standpoint and the way Philadelphia fans are.As long as we make the playoffs and have a shot at the tittle they don't care how the owner does business in the boardroom.But these facts may come in handy if we don't make the playoffs because Philly fans will boo Santa Clause.— vrb1955
- Maybe he'll lay off Bynum & the rest of the players, pocket their salaries & sell the team to Mexico..— ClarkU
- Real workers can't manage a business, that's why they work for the owners. It's a dog eat dog world and its' ugly out there.— jman89
- Hi Joe: the lower tax rate is a result of the duly elected representatives of the people granting them. That makes it fair and legal to enjoy the favorable tax treatment. Giving the "undertakers" a lower tax rate is weak hyperbole and you are better than that, as you well know. But I'm still a fan, even when I think you are banging into the guardrails.— jimmymack
- too bad our hometown basketball team is owned by a plethora of vulture capitalists who turn their backs on the american worker to make a buck. working class folks should choose not to buy tickets, merchandise, etc.— slanted and enchanted
- Teachmyway..I've taken buyouts (in lieu of layoffs) twice. First at at 42 from AT&T and later at 58 at Bank of America and have landed on my feet every time. Much like my current job. And unlike you, I can write complete sentences and spell.— jimmymack
- Vrb makes a good (though by now familiar) point, turnaround artists may be what the Sixers need.— Joe D
- THE 47% ON PUBLIC ASSISTANCE WILL GROW TO 97% ON ASSISATANCE WITH OBAMA SO THE TOP 3% WILL BE THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO WILL BE ABLE TO SUSTAIN THEMSELVES AFTER THE OBAMA COLLAPSE. OVER 8% UNEMPLOYMENT FOR FOUR YEARS AND A REAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE OF OVER 15% IS A PATHETIC RECORD— mjkfisher
- .... the 47% includes veterans, elders on social security, and disabled folks, etc. Stop drinking the Faux news KooldAid and learn to read and think for yourself And while you are at it call George W AND THANK HIM FOR THE MESS. BIN LADEN IS DEAD, GM LIVES — intelliwoman
- All these commentsbwill not make a difference because loyalty to sports trumps politics..especially in this city.— ezlisner
- I see that the local press isn't reporting Mr. Leder's "interesting" party habits. Will we get a free sex show after the game? Ain't hating just glad to see the 1% can get as freaky as everybody else..
— ClarkU
