David Jackson’s credit cards have finally gotten the scissors.
The flamboyant investor — who became a poster-child for private-equity excess as his extravagant buyouts of luxury properties including Barneys New York went sour — has been ousted from Istithmar World, the Dubai-based firm that he has saddled with crippling debts.
Jackson, whose ill-timed shopping spree also included investments in the Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise ship, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Manhattan and Cirque du Soleil, has left Istithmar to “pursue other opportunities,” the firm said.
Jackson’s departure confirmed months of speculation that he would get the boot. Barneys, for which Jackson shelled out $942 million in 2007, is now worth less than one-third of that sum as demand for designer clothing and handbags continues to sputter, investors say.
Nevertheless, Jackson continued to play an active role in the day-to-day operations at Barneys as recently as this month, sources said.
A Princeton- and Yale-educated investment banker who got his start in luxury as a junior merchant at Saks Fifth Avenue, Jackson was “very active” in keeping tabs on holiday-sales progress at Barneys, and meeting with top executives, according to one source.
Nevertheless, the source said it will be “business as usual” in the months ahead for Barneys, which has managed to operate for more than a year and a half without a CEO.
Jackson will be replaced for the interim by Andy Watson, a former Barclays banker who joined Istithmar last September as chief investment officer, shortly after two New York-based deputies of Jackson got the boot.
The Barneys brass will now report to Watson, sources said.
“Istithmar World is focused on the steady-state management of existing assets to maximize value rather than on private-equity investment,” Istithmar parent Dubai World said in a statement. “We wish David every success in his career.”
Dubai World, a state-owned company that’s scrambling to restructure $22 billion in debt in the wake of the global financial crisis, had quashed rumors in September that Jackson had already left the company, professing its “full support” for him.
Since then, the hangover from Istithmar’s buying binge has only gotten worse. The firm has spent nearly $20 billion since 2003, mostly with borrowed money during the bubble market of 2006 and 2007.
In December, the Persian Gulf buyout shop was forced to sell the W Hotel in Union Square for $2 million after ponying up $282 million for the property in 2006. james.covert@nypost.com