Mandate free-for-all
Steel giant Krupp-Hoesch's abortive hostile takeover bid this spring came as a shock to Thyssen, the intended victim. It also humbled German corporate financiers. As international investment banks rushed in to carve up the pie on both sides, the Germans were left to pick up the crumbs.
The day after the plan was leaked was probably the most frantic in the history of German corporate finance. The morning plane from London to Düsseldorf was booked out by investment bankers travelling to Thyssen's headquarters to offer their services as M&A advisers. No fewer than four leading names - Morgan Stanley, SBC Warburg, JP Morgan and Credit Suisse First Boston - were represented in the group which was ushered into one room at Thyssen headquarters to await the management's decision. Thyssen evidently wanted to cover all the bases: to the bankers' surprise, they were all hired.
But one obvious name was missing. After waiting a while, Thyssen's chief executive Dieter Vogel finally telephoned Martin Kohlhaussen, chief executive of Commerzbank, to ask why Commerz's corporate finance staff had not turned up in Düsseldorf too. In the event, the bank played a minor role as an adviser in what turned out to be a merger between the steel divisions of Thyssen and Krupp.