Political Quotes

“I rise to speak in support of legislation that I have recently joined Senator Warren in introducing. It is called the Stop Wall Street Looting Act, and it concerns some of the practices and the business model of what I would describe as predatory private equity firms. Now, before I dive into the details, I want to say that there are very good private equity companies that invest in the businesses they have purchased and the communities and the workers. But, unfortunately, this is something that I have firsthand knowledge of, the impact of predatory private equity businesses on workers and communities in my home State of Wisconsin. Several historic Wisconsin companies have been driven into bankruptcy or had their facilities moved overseas by the private equity funds and companies that acquired them. The first company that I want to talk about is ShopKo. For those who weren't in the ShopKo footprint in the United States, ShopKo is a retailer that was founded in 1961 in Ashwaubenon, WI. ShopKo was bought by a private equity firm, after many profitable years of existence, back in 2005. The firm was Sun Capital Partners. Sun Capital immediately executed what is known as a sale-leaseback. A sale-leaseback is a textbook private equity maneuver in which the fund sells the company's real estate right out from under it. Real estate and the facilities were the most major asset that ShopKo had.…”