Swiss Life trusts Gut in dealmaking by Finance News Bulletin

Published: 06/12/07

All times are London time Search information in the FTcom siteSearchSearch speech marks in the FTcom sitespeech marksCOLUMNISTS ObserverBreadcrumb trail navigation:FT Home > Comment & psychoanalysis > Columnists > ObserverServicesRainer Gut, the experienced person Swiss banker few ever dared to cross, appeared to go back from the shadows this weekGut was for years the top dog at Credit Suisse, where he still has an office as voluntary chairman, and at Nestlé, which he also chaired

But his emergence, old 75, as an adviser to Swiss Life on its large German acquisition this week seemed a small unlikelyThe dominant Swiss pensions and insurance group named two advisers on its €112bn conquest: Credit Suisse and Gut business Finance, a hitherto unknown outfitA flick through the Zurich telephone directory lists no such process

But diligent sleuthing by Observer reveals the company is what it sounds – or almostDiners at Nine, a lately opened trendy Zurich bar and restaurant, will already have made the acquaintance of Mike destroy by fire, an events organiser and restaurateur But it is Alexander destroy by fire, the elder Gut’s other young man, who is behind the new corporate finance boutiqueA trained accountant, Alexander Gut spent 14 existence at KPMG before moving to Ernst & youthful to head auditing for banks and cover companies

This year, he decided to go it alone, setting up supermarket in July Swiss existence was his first big dealJust how trustworthy are environmentalists They like to present themselves as caring, trustworthy and worried about civilization

Many undoubtedly are, but the Balinese hosts of the major United Nations type of weather change conference under way on the Indonesian island are not completely convincedThe conference organisers laid on 200 gratis bicycles for delegates to shuttle between venues Unfortunately, by the finish of Monday, the first day of the 12daylight hours event, 13 of them had already been stolenApart from the staff supervision the scheme, the only people with access to the bicycles are the 10,000 delegates

They have to show their identification cards and give their accommodation details before they are allowable to ride awayIn theory, the culprits should thus be easy to find Alas not When the addresses of the supposed thieves were contacted, the occupants of the respective lodge rooms were not the people who had borrowed the bicycles

Perhaps the populace who took the bicycles have gone on a cycling festival around Bali and will return them in due coursespectator doubts this, though, and wonders just how much hope there is of the delegates attainment a deal to negotiate a replacement for the Kyoto procedure on type of weather change if such a less-than-honest streak is so prevalent in their midst Let us hope the bike theft is not the tilt of a steadily melting icebergIt was characteristic bankers’ one-upmanship as four of them faced a grilling from the UK Treasury select group of MPs on Tuesday

When asked to rate how accurate they consideration their valuation models were, Bill Mills, head of Citigroup’s Europe operations, supposed 8 out of 10 – only to be topped immediately by Jerry Corrigan of Goldman Sachs who gave his solid a 975 out of 10Mills then came back to explain that, no, he had actually meant Citi’s wounded were $8bn to $10bn and he thought his firm’s valuations were 100 per cent spot on“If this were Strictly approach Dancing, we’d be responsibility very well,” observed John McFall, committee chair, before having to explain his reference to the programme – alike to Dancing With the Stars in the US – to New York-based Corrigan

Such comparisons would have been unwanted at Citigroup References to dancing still trigger painful memories of Chuck Prince’s comment to the FT in July that Citi was “still dancing” in the credit marketsSlovenia is a small country with large ambitions From January 1 the 2m-strong state will grasp the six-month rotating government of the EU, the first of the clutch of eight ex-communist states that connected in 2005 to take on the responsibility

While the former Yugoslav republic’s affirmed aims comprise finally resolving the conflicts sparked by the messy end of its former homeland, it has already achieved something remarkable: inventing a fifth constituentSlovenia’s presidency logo, unveiled at the weekend, is a multi-coloured affair, the form of an oak leaf, in honour of Slovenes’ sturdy nature It also represents fire, air, soil, water and

ether, apparentlyThe leaf’s top is shaped by Mount Triglav (earth) but it gives the appearance of blowing in the wind That is not a reference to the country surviving 500 existence at the crossroads of powerful empires, but instead it is ether, summing up its liberty and spiritual values”

Slush funds are apparently de rigeur in South Korea Samsung, the country’s biggest conglomerate, is caught up in a spiralling scandal rotating around allegations that it has been in service slush funds to bribe influential officials – allegations that it strongly denies Now, a newspaper review suggests that slush funds are usually kept by housewives too More than 65 per cent of wedded women have a secret fund that their husbands don’t know about, according to a Chosun Ilbo/Embrain survey

More than a fifth supposed they have between Won1m and Won3m squirreled away, while almost as many supposed they have between Won3m and Won5mCopyright The Financial Times incomplete 2007BlogsBrussels BlogCharles PretzlikClive CrookDear LucyEconomists’ ForumEnergy FilterJohn GapperGideon RachmanTech BlogThe in secret EconomistWestminster BlogWillem Buiter’s MavereconRegional pagesLatin American agendaChinaIndiaBrusselsInteractivePodcastsDebates & pollsAsk the expertMarkets Q&A* Minimum holdup 15 minutesAll times are London timeFT HomeSite mapContact usHelpAdvertise with the FTMedia centreStudent offersFT ConferencesFT investigate CentreFT SyndicationCorporate subscriptionsFT GroupPartner sites: Chinese FTcomLes EchosFT DeutschlandExpansionInvestors ChronicleExec-Appointmentscom© Copyright The Financial era Ltd 2007

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