Author: Philip Eade
Chairman, Barclays Bank, Germany
In September 1993, Rainer Stephan headed a list of what were dubbed “Big Game Hunters” in a Euromoney survey of frequent borrowers. His employers, Deutsche Bank, had lead-managed several notable deals – including sovereign issues from Norway, Belgium, Ireland and Italy. The mandates owed something to the fact that Deutsche’s home currency was the darling of the markets – nine out of 11 of Deutsche’s biggest deals had been in Deutschmarks. But a far from insignificant factor was the popularity of Stephan himself.
A charming, softly-spoken, thoughtful man, Stephan manages to combine informality with a reputation for being a man of his word.
Moreover he has, say his admirers, a wonderful sense of humour, and a friendliness that extends to entertaining both colleagues and clients at home.
One client from the early 1990s was René Karsenti, now head of the finance directorate of the European Investment Bank but then with World Bank. “He is a gentleman in the best senses of the word,” says Karsenti. “An extremely pleasant person to work with, as well as being someone who can remain calm in the most turbulent markets.”
Despite such glowing references, Stephan’s prominence in investment banking circles faded with Deutsche’s decision in late 1994 and early 1995 to give control of investment banking over to the people at Morgan Grenfell.
It was not, he remembers, a policy he agreed with – “although I personally liked them very much”. By the time that Edson Mitchell arrived, he had already made up his mind to leave the London offce.
His next move, to Stuttgart to take charge of Deutsche’s commercial banking in south west Germany, took him well out of the spotlight. “It was a big change,” he recalls. “I had no experience of the loan business.” In hindsight, though, he “learnt a great deal about German corporates”. He was reckoned to have done a fine job in particular with Deutsche’s relationships with the likes of DaimlerChrysler and Porsche. But the invitation from Hans-Joerg Rudloff to return to his investment banking roots at Barclays Capital was not one he agonised over for long.
Stephan was born near Berlin in 1944. After the war, his family moved to the British-administered zone of the city, although his father remained a prisoner of the Allies until 1948. At that point, they moved to Frankfurt, where his father worked for an industrial holding company. At school, he was good at football and drama, but his mother had a “proper” job in mind for him. She suggested an apprenticeship at Deutsche Bank. “It was crazy foresight on her part,” he says. “I wasn’t at that stage particularly interested in banking and, to be honest, I didn’t enjoy it that much. But I just obeyed her orders.”
He was put to work in Basement 2 of the Frankfurt headquarters, counting coupons.
After completing his apprenticeship he went to study law and economics at the universities of Frankfurt and Hamburg at a time (1965-70) of big student demonstrations. “Not a natural radical”, Stephan wasn’t actively involved, although he says he felt some sympathy with what was going on.
After graduating, from 1971 until 1975 he lectured in economics at the University of Frankfurt, while writing a doctoral thesis on shareholder value and how to control management in large German corporations. When he rejoined Deutsche Bank in 1976, he hoped people wouldn’t read his thesis, which was critical of the cozy relationship between the German banks and large corporations.
He had been tempted back to Deutsche by the offer of a job in the prestigious secretariat, the department that handles new issues and corporate finance. Money was not an immediate incentive. “My salary was lower than my salary at university,” Stephan recalls. “My wife wasn’t too impressed.”
After five years, Stephan was sent to Tokyo to run Deutsche’s representative offce. This time it was his wife who persuaded him. “She’s more courageous than I am,” he admits. It was, he recalls, “a very exciting time”, doing new issues and other equity-linked business for large state-guaranteed companies such as Japan Development Bank and Exim Bank. His boss by now was Rolf Breuer.
In 1985, Stephan returned to Frankfurt to become a vice-president in Deutsche’s new issue and corporate finance department, but two years later he accepted the offer to move back to Japan to run DB Capital Markets, Deutsche’s securities subsidiary. Japanese financial institutions were on the up at the time, and DB was in the process of becoming a member of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
He returned to Frankfurt again in 1990 as senior vice-president in Deutsche’s corporate finance department. Then in 1992 he was appointed a managing director of Deutsche Bank, London, responsible for capital markets.
He was the relationship manager for supranationals such as the World Bank and the EIB, and in charge of sovereign borrowers, such as Canada and the UK (for which Deutsche did the Dm5.5 billion deal after it left the European monetary union).
His brief now is to put his people skills to work strengthening Barclays’ relationship with German corporate clients and financial institutions. |
