“Take your pick as to which of these versions you prefer to believe:
1. He is unable to respond as he is deeply involved in structuring a highly complex transaction (even cutting edge) on behalf of a key client of the bank – likely to result in a bespoke solution encompassing a variety of asset classes, also likely to result in a significant uplift to shareholder value
2. He is ‘missing in action’, but rest assured will meet you at the White Hart no later than 5pm”
A colleague of the global head of sales at a major European bank confirms his availability for an important meeting with Euromoney
“Oh great – another free copy of the magazine. It’s a shame you don’t work for Playboy”
A hedge fund manager jokingly greets Euromoney on its second visit to his office in as many months
“Tea, coffee? Drugs, women?”
A Ukrainian investment banker offers a warm welcome to a Euromoney reporter
“The fundamentals of the structure were: ‘are you nuts?!’”
A banker explains the original premise on which a recent LBO bid was built
“We have people trying to market some notes to us now at 23%. Clearly that’s not debt: it’s equity. And however you perfume that particular pig, it’s still a pig”
An unimpressed-sounding principal investor
“I would say that people like us who see Instinet as a competitor could not be happier that it was Nomura that bought them as we have some degree of confidence that they will screw it up”
A head of execution at a Wall Street bank on the Japanese bank’s deal to gain control of the electronic agency brokerage
Electronic brokerage: Nomura gets Instinet access