Moulton's IMF prediction as he launches turnaround firm

Jon Moulton, who caused a sensation last month when he quit his Alchemy Partners, today predicted the IMF could have to bail out the British economy as he prepared to launch his turnaround business next week.

Moulton's business will specialise in buying troubled companies and turning them around, it emerged today.

He is hoping to raise £100 million from investors by Christmas.

The private-equity tycoon, best-known for his failed attempt to buy Rover, quit Alchemy over its decision to diversify away from turnaround jobs.

Under his new guise and in the current economic circumstances, he predicts there will be no shortage of work. "We were very good at turnarounds at Alchemy but my colleagues didn't want to do turnarounds," he told the Irish Times.

For his new venture, he predicted: "There will be a lot of deals," adding, for the benefit of his Irish audience: "How many overleveraged, underperforming businesses would you expect there are in Ireland? At a reasonable estimate, I'd say about 100. If I can land one or two of those, I'll be happy."

Moulton's belief that there will be boom times for turnaround experts is partly based on his gloomy view of the economy.

He said Britain's national debt was a ticking time bomb that could explode in 2014.

"I'm happy to take the bet that we'll end up with the IMF in," he said.