Romney touts bringing Samsonite to Massachusetts at minute 1:36.
Bain Capital was part owner of Samsonite at the time! Details below.
From the Press conference
We're the, you know, we're one part of that equation, but not the whole equation.
A lot of it is outside of our control, it's federal, it's international, it's private sector.
But I'm very pleased that over the last a 2, 2 and a half, years we've seen pretty consistent job growth. 50,000 new jobs created, some great companies.
We just had, last week, Samsonite* announced their headquarters moving here. Companies outside Massachusetts moving in to Massachusetts.
06/21/2006 ROMNEY WELCOMES SAMSONITE TO MASSACHUSETTS
In October 2005, Samsonite moved 120 jobs from Rhode Island to Mansfield.... When the move is complete, the total number of employees in Mansfield will be 220 at an average salary of $67,000.
220 jobs. WOW!
SAMSONITE and BAIN CAPITAL
Without Romney's tax returns we can't know his personal shareholder interests in Samsonite.
Bain, Ares and the OTPPB first invested in Samsonite in 2003 with a $106m (£64.8m) recapitalisation, with Kirkland advising.
So in 2003 Romney became Governor and Bain Capital Et Al invested in Samsonite. And then, in 2006, moved Samsonite's remaining 220 US Based employees to Massachusetts.
I think Bain and the 2 other entities bought Samsonite based on the following. I could be wrong as I am admittedly not trained in the complexities of Private Equity funds.
What do you think?
Samsonite to Be Sold By REUTERS Published: July 6, 2007
The luggage maker Samsonite said yesterday that it had agreed to be bought by the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners in an all-cash deal of about $1.7 billion, including assumption of debt.
Its principal shareholders — entities controlled by Ares Management, Bain Capital Partners and Teachers’ Private Capital, a private investment branch of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan — have agreed to the transaction, Samsonite said.
You can read the whole, sad Samsonite story here. Samsonite's story is a classic example of how a man built a company, how it employed up to 8,500 laborers, and then when and how American manufacturing jobs were strip mined from our landscape by vulture capitalists like Bain Capital.
The Samsonite Story