Nearly a decade earlier, nine shareholders featuring a who's who of local business had invested $100 million to start Bayard, a gas and electricity metering business now known as Landis+Gyr, to be run by Cameron O'Reilly, son of the Irish media mogul Sir Tony.Media investors were brought on board: Kerry Stokes, the Fairfax family's Marinya, Sir Tony, the former Lion Nathan chairman Douglas Myers, the Singapore government investment firm Temasek Holdings, the Jack and Robert Smorgon family, the Allianz Australia chairman John Curtis and the Swiss investment fund Sears Wiederkehr.
Hopes of a float in 2008 were dashed, with the company forced to pay €20 million in advisory fees for a public listing that was pulled in the credit crisis. And like many businesses caught in the crisis, L+G was using plenty of debt. Full Story
