Men with guns are the new dotcoms

Matthew Lynn finds private military contractors such as Colonel Tim Spicer — formerly known as mercenaries — responding to demand in a high-growth business sector

Sitting behind his smartly fashioned desk in one of the new, antiseptic office blocks that line London’s Victoria Street, Tim Spicer looks the very model of the modern entrepreneur. He talks smoothly about service delivery, market share and profit margins. If he were running a hedge fund or a new media company, you wouldn’t be in the least surprised. In fact, his business supplies tough blokes with guns. And a very lucrative trade it has recently become.

Eight years ago Spicer hit the headlines when his private military company Sandline International was accused of breaking UN sanctions and selling arms to Sierra Leone. According to the papers he was a notorious mercenary, a character who had wandered out of the pages of a Frederick Forsyth novel, toppling dodgy governments in hot countries.