Bear eyes Europe

Denis Bovin, Bear Stearns' vice-chairman of investment banking, likes to think of himself as a patriotic American who has helped strengthen the us defence industry. This springs from his role in its rapid consolidation in the post-cold war era of declining military budgets. The posture has endeared him to admirals, four-star generals and other Pentagon top brass and won their favour for mega-mergers. As a result such combinations as the $6 billion Lockheed/Martin Marietta merger or the $9.2 billion Raytheon/Hughes Technology merger were possible, both deals for which Bear Stearns was adviser.

Bovin envisaged an industry that would be dominated by a few companies, much like car makers in the us. And when Bear Stearns' client Lockheed Martin, a major aerospace and defence company formed through a series of mergers, and b2 bomber maker and defence electronics firm Northrop Grumman agreed to merge last June, Bovin figured...