The head of private equity group Alchemy Partners, Jon Moulton, has left the company saying it is "not what it was".

In a letter to investors, Mr Moulton said he disagreed with plans by other partners to turn Alchemy into a specialist financial services firm.

Mr Moulton founded Alchemy in 1997 and is one of the UK’s most high-profile businessmen.

He led an attempt to buy Rover from BMW in 2000, but was unsuccessful when rival bidder Phoenix got the Government behind its bid.

Alchemy you will recall were involved in the negotiations to buy Rover from BMW, until the government intervened and placed it’s weight behind the Phoenix bid. The Phoenix bid was preferable because it saved (at the time) nearly all of the employees, Alchemy were to make a number of people redundant but continue making sports cars at Longbridge. Interestingly BMW were willing to put more money behind Alchemy then they were the Phoenix bid.

As it transpired, the Phoenix Four took millions out of Rover and left most unemployed. The Chinese ended up moving into Longbridge, making sports cars anyway and have raped the business of all the best bits