|
The limousines glistened at the foot of the twin glass towers. On one of the top floors the family bosses and their entourage were holding a summit to discuss where to share business, and where to compete around the world.
On the one side was Rainer Gut, chairman of the board of Credit Suisse, and on the other Alfred Herrhausen, the host, newly appointed co-speaker of the Deutsche Bank.
Officially it was Gut's annual tour d'horizon to visit his rivals and business counterparts in Frankfurt. But there was tension in the air. It had been a year in which Credit Suisse directly challenged Deutsche Bank in the very heart of its home market.
When Deutsche Bank set up in Switzerland in 1981, it chose a low-key private banking operation in Geneva. When Credit Suisse came to Germany it bought Effectenbank-Warburg, a DM1.6 billion bank in the centre of Frankfurt, bringing in Credit Suisse First Boston as co-shareholder, making it clear that it would be attacking the German market on all fronts of commercial and investment banking.
Since July 1985 the CSFB-Effectenbank team had lead-managed 12 issues in the DM foreign bond market and launched several international equity issues for German companies.