Former Conservative Chancellor Sajid Javid is set to become partner at a London investment firm set up by three former Deutsche Bank colleagues.
The former banker, who held seven ministerial positions during a 15-year political career, confirmed on Tuesday he was joining Mayfair-based private equity and asset management firm Centricus. He is due to take up the position on July 8.
Javid is already earning around £450,000 as a consultant to the firm, which manages $42bn (£33bn) in assets and has investments in everything from football to luxury hotels and 3D printing.
According to the members’ benefits register, from March 2023 the company will start paying £25,000 a month for working up to 10 hours a month, increasing to £50,000 a month after hours were doubled in April this year.
He will join Centricus full-time as a partner after the general election, rejoining the firm’s two other partners and co-founders, Nizar Al Bassam and Darinck Aliburnu.
Javid worked with both men at Deutsche Bank for several years before and through the global banking crisis, before leaving the bank to enter politics in 2009.
“I know the company’s founders well as I worked with them previously and, having left Parliament and politics to return to business and finance, I am very pleased to be joining Centricus,” Mr Javid said.
“I intend to give of my time to support good causes. My motivation for going into politics to help others has never disappeared.”
Javid served as business, health and culture secretary and home secretary under three prime ministers. In February 2020, he resigned as chancellor of the exchequer after Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked him to sack him as an adviser and was replaced by Rishi Sunak.
He returned to Johnson’s cabinet as health secretary in June 2021, but sensationally resigned in July 2022 amid a wave of resignations that ultimately led to Johnson’s downfall as prime minister.
Centricus says it focuses its investments on four sectors: financial services, technology, infrastructure and media, and consumer and entertainment.
The firm may be best known for advising the $100 billion Vision Fund, a joint venture between Japan’s SoftBank and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.
Centricus co-founder Al-Bassam is a British and Saudi Arabian national, according to Companies House documents, and the company reportedly played a key role in securing the investment from Riyadh.
The company’s third co-founder, Michel Faissola, reportedly left the company because his ties to the Qatari government created tensions with Saudi Arabia amid rising diplomatic tensions between Gulf countries.
Centricus has also worked with UEFA to draw up an alternative to plans by several major football clubs to create a new super league to rival the Champions League.
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The company was also involved in an ill-fated attempt to buy Chelsea FC in 2022 during a forced sale process triggered by British sanctions imposed on the club’s former owner, a Russian oligarch.
Mr Javid’s consultancy work for Centricus previously attracted the attention of the Advisory Committee on Corporate Appointments (Acoba), which reviews the suitability of ministers taking private sector jobs after leaving office.
Acoba said Javid’s time as chancellor had given him “significant knowledge of fiscal and monetary policy”.
The company said the information “could be perceived as giving Centricus an unfair advantage, particularly as regards potentially risky companies.”
However, authorities allowed Javid to work at Centricus.
Mr Aliburnu, who donated £5,000 to Mr Javid’s Bromsgrove constituency office in 2015, said on Tuesday the office had “benefited greatly” from Mr Javid’s advice over the past year.
“We are pleased that he has agreed to join our partnership and the company full time,” Aburnu said.
“We look forward to his deep understanding and experience of global markets, international business and global geopolitics further contributing to the guidance and execution of our company-wide strategy.”
