Eyeing a presidential run, Jeb Bush cuts some of his financial ties
With presidency in his sights, he hopes to avoid criticism that hit wealthy Mitt Romney
When Jeb Bush completed two terms as governor of the US state of Florida in 2007, he reported his net worth at US$1.3 million, about US$700,000 less than when he took office.
Today, nearly eight years later, he is a wealthier man. He has plunged into business and entrepreneurial ventures involving consulting, the paid lecture circuit and energy development. He has developed real estate, advised international investment banks and joined high-paying corporate boards.
But as he considers a run for president in 2016, Bush has begun to unwind some of his financial affairs, apparently to avoid the kind of criticism that hobbled fellow Republican Mitt Romney in his unsuccessful bid for the White House in 2012.
Bush is quitting Tenet Healthcare Corporation, a company that has profited from Obamacare - and is ending a consulting contract with Barclays Bank to focus on his political future.
Aides say he also has stopped giving highly paid speeches to focus on travelling around the United States, meeting with potential donors and testing what a friend calls a "visionary" brand of campaigning.
But Bush's business record, enmeshed in international finance and some troubled former ventures in south Florida, could end up complicating his return to politics and his hopes to follow his father, George H.W. Bush, and his older brother, George W. Bush, into the Oval Office. Last year, he took a step into the rarefied world of private equity and offshore investments, joining with former banking executives and a Chinese airline company to make bets on natural gas exploration and shipping. One of the funds was set up in the United Kingdom, a structure that allows the company to shield overseas investors from US taxes.
During the 2012 race, Romney drew ceaseless attacks from Democrats for his lucrative work at Bain Capital, a pioneering venture capital company that bought scores of troubled companies, took over their management and sometimes laid off employees while garnering huge fees and payouts.
But Bush and his aides argue that his investments and entrepreneurial ventures are different because he isn't taking control of companies and restructuring them.
"These are all growth investments that the governor has worked on," said Bush's spokeswoman, Kristy Campbell.
Bush's latest undertaking is as a partner in three privately held funds that have raised a total of US$127 million for investments in domestic and foreign companies. Bill Parish, an investment adviser, says the funds are fairly small in the private equity world.
But in the heat of a political campaign, Parish said, opaque investment vehicles, especially involving overseas accounts, inevitably would raise questions about their investors and nature of business. "If he's smart, he's going to take care of it and shut them down," Parish said.
Campbell said the former governor was "reviewing all his engagements and his business commitments" now that he had begun to focus on a potential race for president.
Born and raised in Texas, 61-year-old Bush became Florida's governor in 1999 and served until 2007, the first Republican to hold two-terms in Florida. After leaving office, he set up Jeb Bush and Associates, a management consulting firm. Bush has said the firm's clients range from Fortune 500 companies to small tech startups, but Campbell declined to discuss the company's business or identify its clients.
"He was grabbing at a lot of things to make money quickly," said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida.
Now Bush has begun to pull back, including resigning from Barclays and Tenet Health, both by December 31.
Among his private equity forays which began last year, with three banking partners and amounting to US$127 million, is BH Global Aviation. Based in the United Kingdom, it raised US$60.8 million and is invested in Hawker Pacific, an aviation sales and services firm based in Hong Kong that mainly does business in Asia and Australia.
