Ex-Rock boss Adam Applegarth lands troubleshooter role

Oct 2 2009 by Iain Laing, The Journal

FORMER Northern Rock chief executive Adam Applegarth has made a career comeback as a troubleshooter for a US private equity firm.

The 48-year-old, who was the architect of the high-risk strategy which led the Newcastle-based bank to the brink of collapse and eventually to nationalisation, has been appointed as a senior adviser with Apollo Management, which specialises in buying back underperforming loans.

It is believed Mr Applegarth may even be asked to advise the firm on buying the bad loans on nationalised Northern Rock’s mortgage book when the company is broken up prior to sale by the Government.

He has kept a low profile in the two years since he quit the Rock with a £760,000 pay-off after attracting much of the blame for the expansion policy which led to the bank’s problems.

Around 2,000 staff were made redundant and thousands of shareholders lost their investment.

At the height of the housing boom the former building society was behind a fifth of new mortgage loans – but rather than funding them through deposits, it used wholesale money markets which seized up in the crunch.

Mr Applegarth, who lives in a large detached house in the village of Matfen in Northumberland, left the bank in December 2007, two months before it was nationalised after taking an emergency loan from the Bank of England.

His return to the financial world provoked anger yesterday from those who had been hurt by the Rock’s collapse.

Davey Hall, regional secretary of the Unite union, said: “I believe that our members who work and who used to work at Northern Rock will be miffed to say the least that Applegarth has been offered a lucrative new job.