Poacher turned poacher

Former BP leader Lord John Browne is joining Riverside Holdings as managing director of its European branch, where he will spearhead the US private equity firm’s activities in the energy industry.

Riverside clearly aims to tap Browne’s experience at BP, particularly his role in engineering a series of mergers and acquisitions involving major industrial names such as Amoco, Arco and Castrol.

Whatever his contribution’s to BP’s growth, the incident at the BP Texas City refinery in 1995 suggests that it involved little input in maintaining the assets — human, physical and IT – of the production facilities.

Then again, investment in these areas is seldom a priority in the world of leveraged buy-outs of industrial assets.

Please email your views to patrick.raleigh@centaur.co.uk