The power-sharing at the top of Alliance Boots always looked fudged. With Richard Baker’s departure yesterday, Stefano Pessina has tightened his stranglehold on executive decision-making. A 16 per cent shareholder before the buyout, he now holds 50 per cent of the voting shares and has extracted £400 million in cash as well. Mr Baker hasn’t done badly, either. He leaves with £10 million and an enviable reputation for squeezing a top price out of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for the old shareholders. The job offers should be plentiful. If losers there be, they are the banks. Having lent £9 billion to the buyout company, they have been hit by the crunch in the credit markets and are struggling to sell on the debt.