Buyout

Roy Groves #1

by Ray Green

For five ordinary guys and one rather extraordinary woman, the only escape from the corporate rat-race is to buy the company they're working for: take it all to a new level, save hundreds of jobs and make some serious money. But it quickly becomes clear that nothing is as easy as it seems. The bid is quickly undercut as twisted corporate politics and personal vendettas take over. When the buyout becomes all or nothing for the management buyout team, it all spins out of control: marriages fall apart, dark secrets are discovered, life savings are spent on the stock market, illegal insider dealing becomes a matter of fact and blackmail, theft, betrayal and manipulation are the new rules of the game. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity turns into a lurid nightmare. Buyout is a gripping and compulsive page-turner about the power of money to unveil the deepest in human nature. It's also a story about chasing one extraordinary dream. At an extraordinary price.

financial thrillers series, legal thrillers best sellers, blackmailed, corruption series, business thriller, financial thrillers, legal thrillers series

Genres: Fiction

316 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 29, 2013

About the author

Ray Green is married with two daughters and lives in West Sussex, England. He graduated from Southampton University with a BSc in Physics and then went on to a career spanning some 30 years in the electronics manufacturing industry. For much of that time, he was operating at Director level in several different companies, and so is well qualified to give an insight into the world of business and corporate politics. Buyout, Ray's first novel, is based on his actual experience of carrying out a management buyout. It is, however, a work of fiction: the companies, characters and much of the plot in Buyout are different from those that figured in the MBO which inspired this story. The sequel, 'Payback', charts the fortunes of the principal characters on 'Buyout' over the next few years.

Reviews

[Helen Christmas · Rating 4 out of 5]

After unexpectedly losing his job, Roy Groves lands himself a new position as manufacturing director for Rothorpe Automotive. At first, all goes well, as the managerial team go about their day to day duties, under the careful and at times, sympathetic directorship of American MD, Shirley. Roy already has ideas as to how he can raise the company’s profile and profit margins. Regrettably, it all goes a bit pear-shaped when the iron fist of the US corporation comes down heavy - effectively shoving Shirley aside, where she is replaced by a formidable tyrant, in the form of Tom Montefiore. It is not long before the management team find themselves shoe-horned into a rigid framework of disciplinary and corporate ‘procedures,’ which not only undermines their responsibilities, but prevents them from doing their jobs as effectively. Needless to say, company morale nosedives, leaving Roy with no option than to look for another job - if for no other reason than to escape the ‘ball breaking’ form of management, found in this typical blue chip company.

But when a leaked email ultimately reveals, the UK division is about to be sold, a team of British based managers do the unthinkable - they inaugurate a plan to buy the company themselves, via a series of clandestine meetings. The excitement to escape the rat race and make a tidy profit is infectious; but they are oblivious to the plotting and scheming at head office, where the greed of the US corporation is rife and it is not long before they are being used as pawns, to drive up the bid of a rival company.

‘Buyout’ is an ambitious novel and ticks along at a steady pace, which gets more exciting in the 2nd half. I would have given it 5 stars, if only I had felt a bit more adrenalin. I personally, felt there was too much detail in the day to day operational running of the company; lengthy meetings, discussions of finance and equity which at times, left my eyelids heavy. It is an easy trap to fall into for any author who really knows their subject or has done much research, but to the unenlightened reader, this can be a tiny bit dull and tends to slow down the story.

I can understand why the author wrote it this way, given the intricacy of the buyout process and would recommend this book to anyone who has worked for a UK blue chip company, where the shenanigans of finance, politics and corporate bullying are bound to strike a chord!

[Roger Weir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite enjoyed this. Have done a few MBO’s myself and it was accurate to a point. The corporate double dealing was a bit far fetched but made for a good plot as did the slightly unbelievable MD. Attitude wise it had a very 1970-80’s feel.

Overall, nice light read with good pacing.

[Peter Mathon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buy In

Solid tale of corporate intrigue. But if business is not your thing and you need bloody action, there’s nothing here for you except back-stabbing and blackmail in the board room.

[MS S M CROOK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story line and pretty representative of what happens with a management buyout. Disappointed with some of the characterisation...particularly the Irishman.Sure no one actually talks like that!

[thomas r park · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, can’t wait to read the second book in the series

[Rob Ausfresser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great financial thriller!

If you enjoy financial thrillers, then this book is for you. It is well thought out with good character development.

[Max Lauber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really insightful thriller documenting in detail the labours of company takeovers, both from the perspective of those directly involved, as well as those impacted by the process.

[imoh essien · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in 24hrs

Amazing plot, I loved the different dimensions of office politics, dogged set and the power of a great team and great leadership

[Rob Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good effort writing about a pretty dry, dull subject with a corporate management buyout and the various twists and turns. Couple of spelling errors, 'desert' and 'forgo'. Enjoyable, though.

[Geoffrey West · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big business, corporate treachery, adultery and surprises

Financial Chicanery, back biting, corporate greed, insider trading and treachery seem unlikely ingredients for a book that starts with easy going Roy Groves, a happily married newly redundant senior manager, searching for a job and finding a fairly unexciting post and taking it as a stopgap. But as Roy makes friends at his new job he discovers that all is not as it seems, especially when the pleasant status quo in the company is shot to pieces when the popular director is replaced by someone who is an out-and-out card-carrying bastard. Despite Roy and his friends' and colleagues' best efforts, trouble starts in a big way. There are plenty of characters to like and several you can hate. The plot revolves chiefly around decision making: whether to take a gamble, whether to risk your all, or whether to settle for dull security. And this gamble is something that can make or break their lives.
There are romantic assignations, very dirty office politics, sub plots and twists, and each of the characters comes vividly alive on the page. The thrice divorced matey joker, with an eye for the ladies, the decent guy (with an equally decent wife) whose desire for wealth is to share with others, the Irish chancer who sails too close to the wind, the lovable American woman boss, and the sexy office siren, who cannot help beguiling unsuspecting males.
I know nothing about business acquisitions and takeovers, or how large corporations operate, and for that reason alone I found it interesting to learn the ins and outs of these things, which the author obviously has an expert knowledge of. But really it’s on a human level that this book scores, the personalities of the protagonists who make things happen, for good or ill, their triumphs, strengths and weaknesses, loyalties and failures. The book keeps you gripped because you genuinely have no idea what’s going to happen from one page to the next, and, crucially, you really want to know. It’s only too easy to believe that tough unscrupulous powerful people can stoop to such vicious tricks to get their way, and all the underhand tricks they play on their unsuspecting victims have the ring of truth. All in all, what makes it an exciting book is the notion of nice likeable people taking a huge gamble, with the cards stacked heavily against them. Does their gamble pay off? You’ll have to read the book to find out. I promise you it’s worth it.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-crafted tale of the corporate skulduggery surrounding a management buyout. It starts off slowly as the scene is set, but picks up pace later on as everyone’s agendas become clear.
The characters are well-drawn and are easily recognisable types to anyone who’s worked in a corporate hierarchy. I particularly enjoyed the odious Tom Montefiore. As soon as I read that he had his cat put down so he could take up his position in the UK, I could see that we had a worthy adversary for the management team!
As the transaction moves forward, the pressure builds and strains both working and personal relationships. After a certain point I felt compelled to keep turning the pages until I reached the end. And without giving anything away, I felt satisfied that justice had ultimately been done.
I would have given this book 5 stars, but as other reviewers have noted, there is far too much technical detail about the mechanics of the buyout. I felt that this slowed the plot down without adding anything to the novel as a whole.
Nevertheless I really enjoyed reading Buyout, and found it a masterly depiction of corporate intrigue which few writers would be able to pull off successfully as Mr Green. I’m also looking forward to reading the sequel Payback, which looks from the blurb to be more of a conventional corporate thriller.

[5ngela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the story but feels the ending incomplete. Cannot wait to read the sequel