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Howard Winn

The tale of HSBC, the hippo, the jumbo and JP Morgan
We are looking forward to getting a copy of the new yet to be published history of HSBC.
Our interest has already been piqued by a tantalising tale about a failed merger between the Hippo and the Jumbo. Hippo being the codename for HSBC and Jumbo for JP Morgan.
This comes to us courtesy of the Sunday Times' Prufrock column.
JP Morgan made "a discreet tentative" approach in 1997 to the then chairman Willie Purves.
However, Project Big Game was given the thumbs down by chief executive John Bond and finance chief Douglas Flint, perhaps sensing this would not be a good career move.
Purves retired in 1997 and Bond succeeded him. Flint got his turn in that messy turn of events in 2010 that saw the departure of chief executive Michael Geoghegan.
The new history was commissioned by Bond about a decade ago and will appear in March to mark the 150th anniversary of the bank that was founded on what used to be known as "sound Scottish banking principles" until they were diminished by Fred Goodwin.
The book The Lion Wakes: A Modern History of HSBC was written by historians Richard Roberts and David Kynaston.
Roberts is a professor at King's College London and an expert in financial history, while Kynaston specialises in the social history of Britain.
Kynaston's Austerity Britain, 1945-1951 was published in 2007 to considerable acclaim, culminating in being named "Book of the Decade" by the Sunday Times.
So with a bit of luck, this will be more readable than Frank King's worthy four-volume history of the institution.
The book reveals in 2008 the nervousness of the bank's senior executives at the prospect of being asked to take over ailing British bank HBOS.
"We met at Mike Geoghegan's house to have a position in case we suddenly got a phone call from [then prime minister] Gordon Brown," recalls Flint.
But HBOS went bust and the call was never made, much to their relief.
Rusal the Terrible
Rusal, the Russian aluminium company that is listed in Hong Kong, persists in reminding us of the fifth anniversary of its dismal listing performance. It has been running a quiz on its Facebook page on traditional Russian art. This it deems a success as it attracted 6,940 "likes" on Rusal's Friends of Russia page.
There were a number of winners but Rusal generously had a lucky draw to whittle them down to two. One winner received a free art class at the local Russian art academy while the other received a Russian smart phone, the first with a dual screen. It also has the distinction of being the same as the one presented to President Xi Jinping by President Vladimir Putin.
Rusal's share price closed at HK$5.09 yesterday, compared with its listing price of HK$10.80.
Life after StanChart
Erwin Sanft, the former head of China equity strategy at Standard Chartered, is believed to be the first of the bank's former employees to have secured a job after it closed its equities business earlier this month with the loss of 200 jobs. He is joining Macquarie as head of China strategy.
A number of other brokerages have been letting people go, but some of the mainland brokerages including Haitong Securities International are looking for people.
Peak outrage
In the piece last Saturday about the controversial hotel that is being planned for 27 Lugard Road on the Peak, we incorrectly wrote that what is now the third public consultation for this project ends on January 31. It ends on January 30.
 
Have you got any stories that Lai See should know about? E-mail them to howard.winn@scmp.com
 


The tale of HSBC, the hippo, the jumbo and JP Morgan

In new history book.

Business

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Lai See