Front end

Jim's world tour

Some might see it as a perk of the job, others as an intolerable burden. Either way, Jim Wolfensohn must be one of the world's most travelled people. Since he became president of the World Bank he's been to over 30 countries and covered 111,803 miles, or 179,133 kilometres. That's the equivalent of 11.3 times around the globe, or halfway to the moon ­ all since June 1995.

The countries he's visited are about as diverse as you can get, from Mali and Malawi, to Australia, Vietnam, the West Bank and Uzbekistan. In fact he's travelled to all five continents ­ first class, of course.

Wolfensohn makes a point of travelling extensively inside the countries too ­ visiting organizations like church groups, as well as the usual business and government representatives.

Unfortunately Wolfensohn's travelling was curtailed by illness in the summer. Apart from a trip this June to the g7 conference in Lyon, most of his journeys have been to his ranch in Wyoming. But with his health on the mend there are more trips in the pipeline ­ current favourites are India and Nepal in October.

Antony Currie

The Old Lady's Mr Cool

Bankers will be well advised to remember that the man now responsible for the uk's borrowing never gets hot or cold. He has a medical condition which means he does not feel temperature differences. He even claims not to own a single long-sleeved shirt. So the uk's reputation as the coolest, most calculating borrower in the market looks set to continue.

The new man is John Nugee, who as chief manager of reserves management also looks after the uk's $47 billion portfolio of foreign exchange reserves. He has just returned from a four-year posting in Hong Kong, where he set up the territory's reserve management operation. He succeeds Sue Camper, who has left to set up a Bank of England office in Wales.

"I'm very new to the borrowing side," says Nugee. "Hong Kong did not borrow. So I can honestly say I'm a beginner, but eager to learn." The uk has a reputation for being one of the Euromarket's rarest and most sought-after borrowers. Its issue in July raised $2 billion and was the first since December 1992. The principal reason for the deal's success was the secrecy that surrounded it. Even the sovereign's closest relationship banks were not aware of its coming.

The uk's benchmark $4 billion floating-rate note is due to mature at the end of September, so the uk is expected to borrow a further $2 billion, perhaps in the floating-rate note market. But Nugee is giving nothing away, even though he says he is advantaged as a borrower because he is also an investor and therefore knows what they want.

And what do investors want? "I can't say that," smiles the cool Nugee.
Steven Irvine

Drive-in dinner beats Paris

It is traditional for French franc bond deals to be signed in London, and commemorated with a dinner in Paris. But Abbey National broke with tradition this month when it told lead manager bnp that it was cost-cutting and couldn't justify a trip to the world's gastronomic capital.

So bnp suggested an evening of go-kart racing instead ­ knowing full well that Abbey National's borrowing supremo, Alex Braun, is as much an aficionado of burning rubber and the chequered flag, as he is of shaving off basis points. "People obviously like to do what they're good at," muses Chris Freeman, bnp's head of debt origination. On the other hand, "I haven't done this since I was 10," he adds.

It showed. Freeman and his boss, Jim Saracusa, a man whose 6'6" frame is hardly go-kart-friendly, crossed the line last out of eight. Braun won the event after 125 laps.

bnp's only moment of glory came when its flying Finn, Maria Gripenberg, did the fastest lap in her go-kart debut.

"We gave it our best," says Freeman, laughing at the suggestion that, because Abbey has raised ffr5 billion in French francs this year, it was too important to beat. He adds: "But then we retired to a French restaurant where we have more experience."

Unfortunately the ffr1 billion deal's joint bookrunner, jp Morgan, was unable to race. SI

More creativity at DMG

After the revelation that rogue fund manager Peter Young was long 13 holding companies in Luxembourg, you will be pleased to hear that creativity hasn't quite been stifled at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell by the ensuing clampdown.

A Morgan Grenfell employee has just completed a first novel. John McLaren, a corporate finance director based in London, has written what he freely confesses is not a "city novel". Press Send is a thriller. The only other thing known about the plot is that it has a high-tech venture-capital twist. Everything else, publishers Simon & Schuster are keeping closely under wraps ready for publication early next year.

The debonair McLaren ­ nicknamed James Bond by some of his staff, since he used to work at the British foreign office ­ wrote the novel, which is set in the us, after conversations with friends in Silicon Valley.

"My colleagues, by-and-large, don't know about it," says McLaren, who has been given a two-book contract up front. "Quite a few of them will be pretty surprised," he adds.

He wrote the first book in Geneva in the space of a three-and-a-half week working holiday. The last week was spent closing an m&a transaction ­ he put the final touches to his novel by night, and sold Mühlerbach, the Swiss paper distribution company, by day.

Suitably enough for a Deutsche employee, the book will be translated into German and published, simultaneously with the English version, by Heyne Verlag.

Steven Irvine

Late IMF booking for Massad

When Chilean central bank president Roberto Zahler resigned in June, the ruling coalition quickly came up with a new candidate: health minister, Carlos Massad. His confirmation by the senate as a central bank director was expected to be a formality.