Page 247 - James Caan - The Real Deal

24 · ANew Beginning

BDO’s valuation of the contribution that each company made to
the combined group, my share was 67 per cent. In my mind, I
thought the right time to float would be 1999.
As we were gearing up to float, Doug returned from one of his
regular trips home to the States with an interesting proposition. He
had been seeing some of his old friends at MRI and the long and
the short of it was that they wanted to buy Humana. For years
Doug had told them they should expand internationally but they
hadn’t listened to him. Now that he had taken recruitment
franchises global they wanted it! For Doug, there couldn’t have
been a bigger ego boost, and it was clear he was really tempted by
the opportunity to rejoin his old firm with a fantastic salary and
share package.
I was so geared up for a flotation that this was quite difficult to
get my head round, and I had liked the idea of holding on to
Humana. However, it was clear that Doug wanted to say yes to a
deal that would allow him to return to the States and give him a
fabulous lifestyle. I realised that if I stood in the way of the deal I
would be left with a demoralised chief executive and the diminish-
ing returns that would follow such a decision. As long as the price
was right, I decided that we should sell.
MRI made us an offer we couldn’t refuse, but it just so
happened that the week the deal was being negotiated I was
attending a conference in the States where I got talking to a
corporate banker from Robinson Humphrey, a subsidiary of
Salomon Smith Barney, who specialised in mergers and acquisi-
tions. ‘Let me handle it for you,’ he said.
‘The deal’s practically done,’ I told him. ‘Thanks for the offer,
but I don’t think I need to pay your fee in this instance.’
‘Meet me for breakfast tomorrow,’ he insisted.
When we met, I told him about the business and the deal on the
table and, as I spoke, he realised that there was a way to negotiate
a better price. MRI’s offer had valued Humana accurately, but

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