Editing Michael Heseltine (section)

==Business career==
===Early business career===
Heseltine began articles at [[KPMG|Peat Marwick & Mitchell]] in January 1955.<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, p. 39.</ref> Whilst training as an accountant, he also built up a property business in the London property boom of the late 1950s. He and his Oxford roommate Ian Josephs had each inherited around £1,000 (around £23,000 at 2016 prices).<ref name=heseltine40-41>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 40–1.</ref><ref name="measuringworth.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php|title=Compute the Relative Value of a U.K. Pound|access-date=20 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331194822/https://measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php|archive-date=31 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> They formed a property company called "Michian" (after their first names) and with the aid of a mortgage bought a 13-year lease on the so-called Thurston Court Hotel at 39 Clanricarde Gardens (near [[Notting Hill]]) for £3,750. They evicted the existing tenants so that Josephs' father could renovate the property and let out the rooms for a total rent of around £30 per week. A year later, they were able to sell the property at a profit, doubling their capital to £4,000.<ref name=heseltine40-41/>

With the aid of a £23,000 mortgage, Heseltine and Josephs now bought a group of five adjacent houses for £27,000 in Inverness Terrace, [[Bayswater]]. They arranged for some medical students to decorate and remodel the property into a 45-bedroom boarding house, which they called the "New Court Hotel". Heseltine would sometimes cook breakfast himself, although he rejects tales that he would get up early to mix margarine in with the butter. Many of the tenants were American servicemen who, he later recorded, were for the most part respectful but sometimes rowdy at weekends.<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 41–3.</ref>

[[Edward Heath]], then a government whip whom he had met at the Oxford Union, was his referee when he applied for the Conservative Party Parliamentary Candidates' List in October 1956.<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, p. 46.</ref> Heseltine bought his first [[Jaguar Cars|Jaguar]], second hand and cheap because of the rise in the price of petrol owing to the [[Suez Crisis]], for £1,750 in December 1956, upgrading to newer and more expensive models in future years.<ref name=heseltine48>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, p. 48.</ref>

New Court Hotel was sold in 1957.<ref name=heseltine43>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, p. 43.</ref> At this point Heseltine went into business with another Oxford friend, Clive Labovitch, who brought out ''Opportunities for Graduates'' that year. Heseltine arranged for this to be distributed free, expanded from 40 pages to a 169-page hardback book, to final year students at all British universities, paid for by advertising.<ref name=heseltine59-61>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 59–61.</ref> Heseltine ended his partnership with Josephs and with the aid of a £4,500 investment by Heseltine's mother (following the death of his father in 1957) he and Labovitch were able to buy a group of houses at 29–31 Tregunter Road (south of [[Earl's Court]]), adding two more in neighbouring Cathcart Road.<ref name=heseltine57-58>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 57–8.</ref>

===National service===
Heseltine had transferred his articles to a partner at a smaller firm of accountants located off [[Haymarket, London|Haymarket]], feeling that this would allow him more chance of hands-on involvement in the affairs of the firms whose books he examined, rather than being a cog in a bigger machine. It took him three attempts and special coaching to pass his intermediate exams, and he had little immediate prospect of passing his accountancy finals. He also estimated that he was earning more from his property business than the partner to whom he was articled.<ref name=heseltine43/> With the expiry of his articles in January 1958 he could no longer avoid [[Conscription in the United Kingdom|conscription]] into [[National Service]].<ref name=heseltine39-47>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 39–47.</ref>

Heseltine later wrote that he admired the military, for his father had been a [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|lieutenant-colonel]] in the [[Royal Engineers]] in the [[Second World War]] and active in the [[Army Reserve (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]] thereafter, but that he had felt that his business career was too important to be disrupted. He and his father had taken the precaution of arranging interviews to increase his chances of attaining an officer's commission in case he had to serve.<ref name=heseltine39-47/> He had been lucky not to be called up for the [[Korean War]] in the early 1950s or the [[Suez Crisis]] in 1956; and in the final years of National Service, already due for abolition by 1960, an effort was made to call up men who had so far managed to postpone service. Despite having almost reached maximum call-up age, recently reduced from thirty to twenty-six, Heseltine was conscripted into the [[Welsh Guards]] in January 1959.<ref name=heseltine79>[[Michael Crick]], ''Michael Heseltine: A Biography'', [[Hamish Hamilton]], 1997, {{ISBN|0-241-13691-1}}, p. 79.</ref>

Heseltine spent nine weeks in the ranks as a Guardsman{{efn|Army regulations at the time normally required men earmarked for National Service commissions to first serve a period in the ranks. In practice the Guards, like many other regiments, used this to subject its "Potential Officers" to nine weeks of intensive training under Colour Sergeant [[Peter Horsfall]], designed in part to weed out those who were unlikely to make the grade.[Life in the Jungle: pp. 50–3]}} before being sent for three months of officer training at [[Mons Officer Cadet School]], Aldershot, alongside men from other regiments. He was a capable cadet, reaching the rank of Junior Under-Officer and graduating with an A-Grade, but he was not awarded the Sword of Honour or promoted to the rank of Senior Under-Officer, as it was felt his age had given him an unfair advantage over younger cadets.<ref name=heseltine50-53>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 50–3.</ref> Throughout his training he had been troubled by an old ankle sprain, but he declined the offer of a medical discharge.<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, p. 52.</ref> He was commissioned as a [[second lieutenant]] on 11 June 1959.<ref name=heseltine50-53/>

Heseltine was granted leave to contest the general election in October that year; according to Ian Josephs this had been his plan from the start.<ref name=heseltine79/> Afterward he applied on business grounds for exemption from return to the Army, in part because of difficulties caused by an employee's embezzlement,<ref name=heseltine57-58/> and partly including the need to sort out his [[Probate|late father's affairs]], and was exempted from his remaining sixteen months of service.<ref>[[Michael Crick]], ''Michael Heseltine: A Biography'', Hamish Hamilton, 1997, {{ISBN|0-241-13691-1}}, pp. 79, 92–3.</ref> During the 1980s his habit of wearing a Guards [[regimental tie]], sometimes incorrectly knotted with a red stripe on the neck, was the subject of much acerbic comment from military figures and from older MPs with distinguished war records. Crick estimated that he must have worn the tie on more days than he actually served in the Guards.<ref>[[Michael Crick]], ''Michael Heseltine: A Biography'', Hamish Hamilton, 1997, {{ISBN|0-241-13691-1}}, pp. 92–3.</ref>

===Business career: expansion and near disaster===
By now the property boom was in full swing. Heseltine and Labovitch established first one, then a group of companies under the name "Bastion Properties".<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 60–1.</ref> Heseltine later recorded that he and Labovitch bought at least three properties in W1 and W2 which they were able to sell at a profit before they had completed{{efn|Purchase of land in England And Wales contains two major milestones: "exchange of contracts", after which a binding agreement exists and the buyer can no longer be [[gazumping|gazumped]] by a higher bidder, and "completion", at which the buyer's solicitor transfers the formal legal title to the land, either by amending the [[title deeds]] or, nowadays, by having the [[HM Land Registry|Land Registry]] updated}} the original purchases. They also built eight small houses in Queensborough Mews, Bayswater.<ref name=heseltine59-61/> They bought a 58-year lease on a block of seven properties at Stafford Terrace, off Kensington High Street, which they converted into flats<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 61–2.</ref> and built houses for Stepney Borough Council.<ref name=heseltine70-73>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 70–3.</ref> Bastion also planned to build an estate of up to 126 houses{{efn|it is unclear whether they actually built as many as this}} at [[Tenterden]], Kent, which failed to sell. In order to attract other buyers to the empty estate Heseltine had to accept an offer of £4,000 for the first house, which had been valued at £7,250.<ref name="heseltine70-73"/> The estate was beset with repair problems until after Heseltine's election to Parliament.<ref>Michael Crick, ''Michael Heseltine: A Biography'', Hamish Hamilton, 1997, {{ISBN|0-241-13691-1}}, pp. 105–7.</ref>

Heseltine and Labovitch also founded the magazine publishing company Cornmarket, and brought out ''Directory of Opportunities for School Leavers'' and ''Directory of Opportunities for Qualified Men'', which earned a steady income from advertising. Canadian, French and German versions were also launched, although these were less profitable.<ref name=heseltine59-61/> In late 1959, using £10,000 of a £30,000 profit on selling a freehold site off Regents Park, they acquired the famous (but unprofitable) magazine ''[[Man About Town (magazine)|Man About Town]]'' whose title was shortened to ''About Town'' then simply ''Town''.<ref name=heseltine64-66>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 64–6.</ref> In 1962, they paid £10,000 for ''Topic'', a weekly newspaper that had been launched the previous year by a group of entrepreneurs including the Prime Minister's son [[Maurice Macmillan]], and which was now owned by Norman Mascall (a [[pyramid scheme]] fraudster of the era). By then the economic climate was too difficult, and like many publishers they found that there is limited appetite for weekly papers in the UK. ''Topic'' ceased publication at the end of 1962, but its journalists later became ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' Insight Team.<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', [[Hodder & Stoughton]], 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 67–9.</ref>

Heseltine became managing director of [[Bow Group]] Publications in 1960, mainly looking after advertising and circulation for its ''Crossbow'' magazine (he does not seem to have written any articles or pamphlets himself). He contemplated suing ''The Observer'' for a [[Limerick (poetry)|limerick]] mocking his dress sense (spelling "Bow" as "Beau") for implying him to be homosexual, but was talked out of it. He remained a director until 1965.<ref>Crick 1997, pp. 112–3.</ref>

Bastion Properties was in trouble because of building costs and an unsatisfactory building manager.<ref name=heseltine70-73/> After rapid expansion, Heseltine's businesses were badly hit by the [[Selwyn Lloyd]] financial squeeze of 1961{{efn|Heseltine misdates this to July 1962. In fact the squeeze was a year earlier, in July 1961, and Lloyd was dismissed as chancellor in July 1962.[''Life in the Jungle'', pp. 70–3]}} and, still not yet thirty years old, he eventually owed £250,000 (around £4.5 million at 2016 prices).<ref name="measuringworth.com"/> He states he was lent a badly needed £85,000 in December 1962 by a bank manager who retired the same day. He avoided bankruptcy by such tactics as paying bills only when threatened with legal action, although he eventually settled all his debts. It was during this stressful period of his life that he took up gardening as a serious hobby.<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 73–4.</ref> Later, during the 1990s, Heseltine committed a minor gaffe when he joked in a speech about how he had strung creditors along.<ref>Crick 1997, p. 426.</ref>

Between 1960 and 1964, Heseltine also worked as a part-time interviewer for [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]], very likely, in Crick's view, to maintain his public profile as an aspiring politician.<ref>Michael Crick, ''Michael Heseltine: A Biography'', Hamish Hamilton, 1997, {{ISBN|0-241-13691-1}}, pp. 109–12.</ref>

===Formation of Haymarket===
Despite Heseltine's later insistence on management controls in government departments which he ran, Cornmarket was a highly disorganised company, with little in the way of accounting or business plans and cheques and invoices often going astray. One of its most lucrative ventures, the ''Graduates Appointments Register'' (albums of anonymous graduate [[Curriculum vitae|CV]]; companies had to pay for the names and addresses of those whom they wished to interview), went ahead after an employee simply ignored Heseltine's instructions to abandon the project. Heseltine and Labovitch brought a great deal of energy and openness to new ideas (for example the in-house magazine for [[Hilton Hotels]], or new owners' packs for people who bought [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] cars), talent-spotting able young men and leaving it to them to sort out the details.<ref>Crick 1997, pp. 139-41.</ref>

Lindsay Masters, who had joined the Heseltine-Labovitch publishing business as an advertising manager in spring 1958, and Simon Tindall, who had joined in his early twenties as an advertising salesman while Heseltine had been doing his National Service, played an increasingly large role in managing the company.<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 62–3, 87–8.</ref> Masters kept a tight grip on the selling of advertising space, banning boozy lunches and setting targets for calling of clients, followed by chase-up calls, whilst keeping a public league table of salesmens' success rates; these were relatively innovative techniques at the time.<ref>Crick 1997, pp. 139–41.</ref>

By 1964, Cornmarket owed a great deal of money to their printers, Hazell Watson & Viney, which was then merging with the [[British Printing Corporation]] (BPC). Heseltine was summoned by BPC to be told to sort out his firm's debts, but instead persuaded them to accept, instead of payment, an equity stake of at least 40%{{efn|Heseltine writes that it was 40%, Crick 49%. Heseltine also omits any mention of the debts and implies that this was a purely voluntary transaction first mooted by their previous printer Keliher, Hudson & Kearns in 1963, and continued by Hazell Watson & Viney after they took over that printer.}} in a new, merged business. The portmanteau name "[[Haymarket Media Group|Haymarket]]" was suggested by [[Sir Geoffrey Crowther]], chairman of BPC.<ref>Crick 1997, pp. 141–2.</ref><ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, p. 76.</ref>

===Haymarket grows===
From the autumn of 1964, Haymarket set out aggressively to acquire magazines, approaching them from the list in the media directory BRAD. They acquired small, modestly profitable magazines for tape recorder and camera, and camping and caravan, enthusiasts, and using a loan from BPC bought a series of leisure and medical publications for £250,000 from a Canadian publisher, in competition with [[Thomson Reuters|Thomson Group]].<ref>Crick 1997, pp. 142–3.</ref>

In 1965 Heseltine's businesses had a turnover of around £700,000 per annum, and employed around 50 staff. Although the ''Opportunities for Graduates'' series continued to generate profits, ''Town'' magazine continued to lose money, hampered by the cost of printing (much more expensive at that time than nowadays) and by Heseltine's reluctance, for political reasons, to include pictures of nude girls or cartoons disrespectful of the Royal Family.<ref name=crick138-139>Crick 1997, pp. 138–9.</ref>

Haymarket launched a bid for the British Institute of Management's magazine ''The Manager'', again in competition with Thomson Group, in late 1965. It was envisaged that Haymarket would take a 25% stake, as would the ''Financial Times'' and ''The Economist'', of both of which Crowther was also chairman. Over the weekend Heseltine, inspired by how [[Donald Stokes, Baron Stokes|Donald Stokes]] had once won a Scandinavian bus contract for [[British Leyland]] by building a model bus, had a team led by Labovitch prepare a 96-page mock copy of what they envisaged, mostly using text cut from ''The Economist''. [[Robert Heller (journalist)|Robert Heller]] was brought in as the first editor of what became ''Management Today'' – Heseltine initially irritated him by taking him to lunch at the [[Carlton Club]] and talking of his political aspirations, but Heller soon recognised that Labovitch was the front man whose job was to impress those who needed to be impressed, and Heseltine was "the dynamic and real entrepreneurial brain". The first edition came out in April 1966, just after Heseltine's election to Parliament. Haymarket went on to publish similar magazines for Marketing, Personnel Management and Computing Institutes.<ref>Crick 1997, pp. 143–5.</ref>

Labovitch left Haymarket at the end of 1965. Heseltine stated he spent three days trying to persuade him to stay. Labovitch wanted to establish himself as a successful educational and careers publisher, and may well have been pushed by his then wife, the socialist journalist Penny Perrick, who disliked Heseltine both personally (as best man at their wedding he had, she said, welcomed various business figures in his speech as if he were at a board meeting) and politically and whom he had refused to include on the Haymarket board. Labovitch was a generator of ideas but he lacked Heseltine's business skills. Although he took his profitable ''Directories'' with him, he had to sell them back to Haymarket when his business failed in 1973, causing him to attempt suicide. Heseltine offered him a position as consultant to Haymarket.<ref>Crick implies that he rejoined the company; Heseltine writes that he declined the offer.</ref> The two former partners remained on friendly terms until Labovitch's death in 1994.<ref name=crick145-147>Crick 1997, pp. 145–7.</ref><ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 80–2.</ref>

Very few staff left with Labovitch. Lindsay Masters stayed behind, very likely in the knowledge that he might soon be running the company as Heseltine's political career took off.<ref name=crick145-147/> However, Heseltine continued as managing director of Haymarket even after being elected to Parliament in March 1966, and based himself at the company offices near [[Oxford Circus]] rather than in the House of Commons.<ref name=crick136-137>Crick 1997, pp. 136–7.</ref> Heseltine's Oxford friend Julian Critchley was editor of ''Town'' for around a year from 1966 until he was sacked by Masters, ending his friendship with Heseltine who had shrunk from delivering the blow himself.<ref name=crick138-139/>

===Further growth===
In April 1967, Heseltine persuaded BPC to inject a further £150,000 into Haymarket, increasing its ownership stake to 60%, whilst Heseltine and other directors retained smaller shareholdings. Haymarket doubled their magazine portfolio by taking over the management of twenty of BPC's magazines (many of which had been acquired by BPC in lieu of bad debts by other publishers), including ''Autosport''. However, they were now effectively a subsidiary of BPC; Heseltine, Masters and Tindall could potentially be outvoted or even sacked by the four BPC directors on the board. BPC installed a new financial controller who installed cost and cashflow management for the first time, and insisted on finally closing ''Town'' magazine at the end of 1967.<ref>Crick 1997, pp. 147–9.</ref> ''Town'' had never made a profit, but Heseltine writes that its quality was instrumental in establishing Haymarket's reputation as a publishing house.<ref name=heseltine64-66/> Around that time, ''Management Today'' became Haymarket's first big success.<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, p. 78.</ref> A BPC manager recorded that Heseltine kept the initiative at board meetings by "poker-faced nit-picking" about the quality and timing of BPC's printing, rather than by employing what came to be considered his usual "I will transform the world" rhetoric.<ref>Crick 1997, p. 194.</ref><ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 82–9.</ref>

In 1968, there were rumours that BPC was planning to sack Heseltine.<ref>Crick 1997, p. 157.</ref> Another of the titles acquired from BPC was ''World's Press News'', largely a compilation of world press releases, which was relaunched by Masters and Robert Heller as ''[[Campaign (magazine)|Campaign]]'' in September 1968 (Heseltine initially opposed the title, thinking it sounded too political). It rapidly became standard reading in the world of advertising and Public Relations, for its gossipy reporting, often obtained by trading information, of who was gaining or losing accounts or being promoted or sacked. Within a year it had overtaken ''Advertisers Weekly'' for its volume of classified ads. Heseltine was forced, in the face of a strike, to recognise the [[National Union of Journalists]] among his staff. Josephine Hart (later a novelist and the wife of [[Maurice Saatchi]], who was Heseltine's assistant at this time), further improved the advertising sales operation by recruiting a team of largely female sales staff.<ref>Crick 1997, pp. 149–55.</ref>

As part of his ongoing campaign to buy titles off other publishers, Heseltine noticed a magazine called ''The Accountant'' which was easily paid for by vast amounts of advertising. Robert Heller produced a dummy edition of a Haymarket version, modelled on the ''Daily Telegraph'', which became ''[[Accountancy Age]]''. Following an international phone call between Heller, who was on holiday in [[Portugal]], and Heseltine who was on a political trip to [[Singapore]], the launch date was brought forward by three months on learning that a rival publication was to be launched. ''Accountancy Age'' was launched in December 1969, largely by Haymarket's business development manager [[Maurice Saatchi]], and was profitable from the start.<ref>Crick 1997, pp. 155–6.</ref>

Buoyed by the success of ''Management Today'', ''Campaign'' and ''Accountancy Age'', Haymarket made pre-tax profits of £3,000 in 1968, £136,000 in 1969 and £265,000 in 1970.<ref>Crick 1997, p. 156.</ref> Heseltine resigned as managing director of Haymarket on his promotion to principal opposition spokesman on transport in 1969, although he continued as chairman of the board until he became a minister in 1970, at which point he resigned from the board altogether, whilst remaining a major shareholder.<ref name=crick136-137/>

===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>

===After 1997: return to business===
By 1997, when his career as a Cabinet minister ended, Haymarket was making an annual profit of over £10m and employing around 1,000 people. Heseltine resumed management of the company after Masters' retirement in 1999.<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 92–4.</ref> Haymarket has seen reduced profitability in the UK since 1999, but has expanded further into foreign markets (for example India). It has also laboured under heavy borrowings of over £100 million to buy back Masters' and Tindall's large minority shareholdings, which have been reduced to some extent by the sale of properties. Heseltine has now retired from day-to-day management, handing over to his son Rupert.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.flashesandflames.com/2015/07/whats-next-for-haymarket-media/ |title=What's next for Haymarket Media? |work=Flashes and Flames.com |date=27 July 2015 |access-date=29 July 2015}}</ref>

Heseltine's ownership of Haymarket has made him a large personal fortune. As of 2013 he was ranked 311th in [[Sunday Times Rich List|''The Sunday Times'' Rich List]] with an estimated wealth, including shareholdings held by members of his immediate family, of £264 million.<ref>The Sunday Times Rich List, pp. 44–45, 21 April 2013.</ref>