Editing Michael Heseltine (section)

===1970s: Heseltine takes ownership of Haymarket===
In 1970, Heseltine turned down the chance to invest £25,000 in the advertising agency [[Saatchi & Saatchi]] when it was set up (his former employee Maurice Saatchi said that he had learned a great deal from Heseltine's aggressive techniques of acquiring magazine titles, and from publicity in ''Campaign'' magazine), believing wrongly that it was against the code for ministers to make such an investment. Lindsay Masters did invest, but was eventually bought out by the Saatchi brothers; Heseltine later believed that he and Masters together could have made another fortune if they had reinforced one another with large shareholdings in Saatchi and Saatchi.<ref>Crick 1997, pp. 195–6.</ref>

With Heseltine a government minister from June 1970, Haymarket was being run by Masters and Tindall, who had secured another coup by publishing ''Computing'' for the British Computing Society. BPC was in financial trouble in 1971, and Heseltine, Masters and Tindall assembled a consortium of [[NatWest Markets|County Bank]], Charterhouse Development, [[ICFC]] and Wren Investments to help buy out BPC's 60% stake for £1m, a very low price given that Haymarket had made over £250,000 the previous year. The consortium took a 40% stake in Haymarket, and loaned the company £820,000, while Heseltine took out a large personal loan at this time to buy both another 20% of Haymarket's shares (the rest of the BPC shareholding, bringing Heseltine's own shareholding to just under 50%). At the meeting to close the deal, one of the bankers recorded, "Michael thought he was President of the Oxford Union again, and entered into a grand oration and bored everyone stiff".<ref>Crick 1997, pp. 194–5.</ref> In 1971 Heseltine placed his shares in a trust controlled by his ministerial boss Peter Walker and by his solicitor Charles Corman. Haymarket's pretax profits were £453,000 in 1971 and £704,000 in 1972.<ref name=crick196>Crick 1997, p. 196.</ref> Haymarket was due to be floated as a public company in the autumn of 1973, although this was cancelled because of the [[1973 oil crisis|rise in the oil price]], which reduced the profitability of the publishing industry. They thus avoided the stock market crash which followed. The company remains privately owned to this day.<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 90–1.</ref><ref name=crick196/>

Heseltine acted as a consultant to Haymarket during his period out of government office between 1974 and 1979.<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 91–2.</ref> His role was to bring in new publishing ideas. He believed he increased performance, although Robert Heller later recorded that he did very little, for he was too busy as a member of the Shadow Cabinet. He worked from an office at Haymarket, near [[Regent Street]], rather than in the House of Commons.<ref>Crick 1997, pp. 193–4.</ref> Under the management of Masters and Tindall, Haymarket continued to grow. By 1976 it was making annual profits of round £1.75m.<ref name=heseltine92/> In 1976–1977 Heseltine, Masters, Tindall and the Finance Director David Fraser bought out the consortium's 40% share, using money borrowed from them, giving Heseltine and his family over 50% control of Haymarket.<ref>Crick 1997, pp. 196–7.</ref><ref name=heseltine92>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, p. 92.</ref> Heseltine had taken out large personal loans both to increase his stake in the company and to buy his country mansion Thenford House. Masters had also done the same to buy himself a property.<ref>Crick 1997, pp, 196-7, 324.</ref> Several titles, including ''Accountancy Age'' and ''Computing'' were sold to the rival company [[Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen|VNU]] in 1980. The transaction raised £17m, half of which went to Heseltine, but in Crick's view was a bad move for Haymarket.<ref name=crick324>Crick 1997, p. 324.</ref> During Heseltine's second period out of office (1986–1990), Masters threatened to resign if Heseltine returned to Haymarket, but once again he became a consultant on £100,000 per annum.<ref>Crick 1997, p. 297.</ref>