Jon Moulton (born 15 October 1950) is a British venture capitalist. He is the founder and managing partner of the private equity firm Better Capital, and is the former managing partner of the private equity firm Alchemy Partners. Moulton is best known for leading Alchemy Partners' bid to buy MG Rover from BMW in 2000, which ultimately lost out to a rival offer from the Phoenix Consortium.[1]
Moulton is originally from Stoke-on-Trent. He was educated at Hanley High School and Lancaster University, where he took a degree in chemistry. He then trained as a chartered accountant, and joined Coopers & Lybrand in 1972. He left in 1980 to join Citicorp Venture Capital, and became managing director in London. He was managing partner of Schroder Ventures from 1985 to 1994, and after a spell at Apax Partners founded Alchemy in 1997.[2]
Moulton has earned a reputation for outspokenness. He has criticised attempts by private equity firms to deflect criticism.[3] He has also spoken out against the favourable tax treatment of private equity.[4] In July 2007 he gave evidence to a Treasury Select Committee of the House of Commons enquiring into the private equity industry, when he accused private equity firms of abusing a generous tax regime.[5] Later that year he criticised the accountancy profession for a loss of integrity in due diligence work on private equity buyouts.[6] Despite being an outspoken critic of offshore, Moulton has a residence in low-tax Guernsey in addition to a Guernsey-domiciled investment company. [7]
Moulton resigned from Alchemy in September 2009, saying it is "not what it was", and that he disagreed with plans by other partners to turn Alchemy into a specialist financial services firm. Moulton also apologised to investors for making "too many investment and people errors".[8] and that he will do investment again "but better", (hence the name Better Capital")
In April 2010, Better Capital backed a management buyout of the UK arm of Reader's Digest in a £13 million deal with the company's administrator, Moore Stephens.[9] In April 2011 he became Chairman of Verdi Semiconductor Ltd a Fabless semiconductor company in the LED and Power sector. In July 2011 Better Capital purchased Fairline a luxury Motor Yacht manufacture from Oundle.