Asia may be crumbing, and rumours of losses on several investment banks' proprietary trading desks are beginning to do the rounds, but that doesn't appear to be hampering the desire to splash out on lavish Christmas parties.
Literally, in one case. Five houses have revived last year's idea of having a joint party, and this year have chosen the London Aquarium as their venue. Goldman Sachs is again running the books for the deal, and is the only one of the five which is still in the same shape as last year. CSFB has just bought parts of BZW, Morgan Stanley merged with Dean Witter, Salomon with Smith Barney, and SBC Warburg bought Dillon Read. Could this be the time to throw some of the unwanted scraps to the sharks, or will a sense of decorum and festive spirit prevail?
Bankers Trust has chosen an altogether more cultural venue, Shakespeare's Globe theatre, no less, to fete its guests a week later. Others, though, started early. Barclays Capital, the bits of BZW which Barclays kept, staged their relaunch at Vong, a swish Knightsbridge restaurant specializing in a cross between French and Thai cuisine. "It's been a very successful evening," said one senior manager on the night. "I just hope we can do these more often, and not just each time we sell something."
Beating them all for timing was Commerzbank's London office, which rejected the obvious Oktoberfest and Christmas parties for a novel Novemberfest. With the markets so quiet, syndicate heads from some of the major German and American investment banks were more than happy to attend, but the accolades must go to Axel Thill from Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. With trouser legs rolled up above his knees and a Bavarian cap on his head, the doughnut-loving syndicate head won the prize for best yodeller, despite stiff competition from the host's youthful team. Not one to take all the glory, Thill interspersed his encore with cries of: "Come on! Alle zusammen! Altogether now!"
Will he return the favour next year and invite Commerzbank back to Dresdner's new headquarters? A sobering thought for this year's hosts: several members of the debt team, including head of origination Yann Gindre, only recently escaped the former car park. They work there for the last tenant, BZW. Antony Currie