WHAT’s the difference between Philip Green, the retail entrepreneur, and Mike Smith, chairman of CVC, the private-equity giant? On the surface there are striking similarities. Both have pads in Monaco, run hugely successful private companies and own large boats. The difference isn’t just that Green’s yacht is bigger and he is wealthier by a factor of 10.

The disparity is how they approach their wealth. Green, who awarded his family a £1.2 billion payday last week, openly celebrates his success. He is proud of it, he is a master at playing the press and holds back no secrets as to how he takes the money out of his retail empire — by borrowing against cashflow.

Smith does the same but goes to great pains to conceal just how much he and his co-investors have made. CVC and the other private-equity groups such as Cinven, Permira, Blackstone and BC Partners could learn something from Green. It’s called openness.

On the front page, my colleague Peter Koenig peels back the ownership structure of CVC — one of Europe’s biggest private-equity funds — and penetrates its labyrinth of Luxembourg companies. It makes for fascinating reading.

CVC doesn’t see it that way. On Friday it issued a statement to us saying, if we waited, it would “provide access at the most senior level to explain our operating philosophy, our approach, our management style, the transparency of our reporting and how we are held accountable to those who entrust us with their funds . . . We regret that The Sunday Times declined this offer and is intent on publishing material which is to a large degree speculative, materially inaccurate and taken out of context”.

Seems a bit over the top to me. CVC was never going to offer us a guided tour around its ownership structure, the huge rewards enjoyed by a handful of people, the close relationship between members of the private-equity magic circle and the tax loopholes the sector exploits. These are the areas that those outside its opaque world want to understand. Our agenda is not driven by a fascination with private wealth. Our interest is much broader.

As a paper, we champion financial success and admire people like Smith, who have generated colossal rewards for themselves and co-investors. We know Smith and his team are driven businessmen.

The issue we have is transparency. Private equity is now too big to ignore and it needs to open its black box to an increasingly inquisitive audience. Green has achieved that; so should others. The investors behind private-equity groups are pension schemes and life funds and they should demand openness, in the same way they do with companies listed on the stock exchange.

As regards our article, if we have made material mistakes (although CVC declined to identify them) we will correct them. Will CVC still hold to that meeting? I very much hope so.

Power struggle

AS Britain shivers its way toward a three-day week, the only ones laughing are the smart cookies who had the foresight to invest in British power plants.

The CBI president, Sir Digby Jones, warned this week that power shortages could send British industry back to the dark days of the 1970s this winter. These looming shortages have sent power-station values sky-high. British Energy, the nuclear-power company that collapsed a year ago, has seen its shares nearly double since it was relisted. The hedge funds and distressed-debt investors who hoovered up the loans of Drax, Britain’s biggest power station, when it was in crisis three years ago have seen their investment roughly quadruple.

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