TRAFALGAR House will be known as the Jardine group's retreat from Moscow. After a short-lived honeymoon following the purchase of a strategic stake in the British conglomerate four years ago, problems increasingly have piled up on top of each other.
Jardines effectively executed a back-door takeover of Trafalgar by investing $3.7 billion for a 25.6 per cent stake in the company. This led to Jardines winning management control of Trafalgar at the board level - Simon Keswick became chairman and Nigel Rich became chief executive.
Since Mr Rich's appointment there have been five more Jardines-related appointments comprising a third of Trafalgar's board.
The interest in Trafalgar has been equity-accounted at Hongkong Land Holdings since April 1993.
When Mr Keswick took the reins at Trafalgar it was reported he had given himself two years to really get the company sorted out and ready for a meaningful turnaround.
Although a review of group operations was undertaken by the new Jardine players, they failed in the early days of the takeover to really grab the organisation by the scruff of the neck and shake it up.
