Christine and Greta
2020
A slack start to the year prompts bankers to rethink their reservations about helping Saudi Aramco list its shares on international venues.
“You have to respect the way they were able to ramp the valuation on their domestic listing to $2 trillion with outright coercion and a few handouts for hedge funds. Sometimes I think we’re missing a trick in America,” says JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon. “So I told Michael Klein if he can get us a soft guarantee of a $50 million fee, we’re all in. I’ll give the other Wall Street heads cover so they can do the same – what do I care? I’m leaving soon anyway.”
UK prime minister Boris Johnson declares that Britain is open for business post-Brexit and that a new dawn for non-disclosure should make London the perfect venue for a Saudi Aramco listing.
He is frustrated when departing Bank of England governor Mark Carney and European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde combine to thwart a move to relax UK listing rules.
“It looks like the wrong sort of Johnny Foreigner is stopping the right sort of Johnny Foreigner from selling shares and handing out some much-deserved moolah to the good people of Canary Wharf,” Johnson responds.
