Subway has been sold to PE firm Roark Capital for a reported $9.6 billion. As is so often the case under PE ownership, Roark may now seek to reduce costs, strip assets and cut fat from the company until it makes Jared Fogle’s 245-pound weight loss look pathetic in comparison.

The lowdown

• 🌭 Subway has been sold to PE firm Roark Capital for ~$9.6 billion, ending its run as a family business.

• 💌 BRICS invites six new countries to become members of the economic cooperation group, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

• 🇹🇷 Turkey hikes interest rates 7.5 percentage points to 25%, a sign it is abandoning its previous monetary policy of low rates.

Featured story

OnlyFans owner receives $338 million in dividends

The owner of OnlyFans Leonid Radvinsky paid himself $338 million in dividends in the last year. Radvinsky has collected a total of $889 million from the site over the past three years.

In case you didn’t know, OnlyFans is primarily a marketplace for adult performers and allows these creators to retain 80% of the revenue they bring in, with the remaining 20% retained by the company.

In 2022, OnlyFans' pre-tax profits surged by 22%, reaching $525 million. Payments made via the platform rose to $5.6 billion from $4.8 billion the year before and the company's revenue also saw an uptick, growing from $932 million in 2021 to $1.1 billion. We know all this as OnlyFans is required to file its accounts with the UK’s Companies House, unlike competitor PornHub which operates under a veil of secrecy ($).

The content we're consuming today

• The Economist: The benefits of a good workplace mentoring scheme are undeniable ($).

• Money Talks podcast: Counting the cost of education.

• NY Times: How Jackson Hole Became an Economic Obsession ($).

Off-balance sheet items

• So much nostalgia with Justin Timberlake, Benicio Del Toro and Alicia Silverstone starring in the new Netflix movie Reptile. It looks scary and is rated R so I will be watching it at 9 AM with all lights on, ready to call the police if I hear ANY sounds.

The bottom line