It’s sale time

Inventor and entrepreneur Sir James Dyson is to crystallise £150m of his ownership of the Dyson business in advance of this week’s changes to the capital gains tax regime, according to the Telegraph.

Dyson’s CFO John Shipley said that the decision to increase the debt on Dyson’s balance sheet was taken last year: “Our decision to refinance was taken long before the Chancellor announced changes to CGT. Of course, those changes made it important to complete our plans before April.”

Dyson follows the likes of Sir Ken Morrison, Pret a Manger founders Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham, Tyrrells Crisps and others in rushing through business sale sor similar deals ahead of the April 1 CGT deadline. Great work for corporate finance advisers, I’m not sure it’s a great sign of an “entrepreneurial economy”. Nice one, Alistair Darling.

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