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SS Euro - sinking the unsinkable

It's all in the price

Peregrine's last days, by Andre Lee

The government has changed, but the story remains the same: unscrupulous Russian managers ride roughshod over the rights of pioneering foreign investors. But the wild frontier of capitalism is not as wild as it used to be. Some recent disputes about corporate governance are far from clear-cut. And behind the scenes, the rule of law is being strengthened. Charles Piggott reports

Ewa Wisniewska, the new president of Poland's largest bank, has her work cut out for her. On one side of the modern office tower in mid-town Warsaw where she works, there is a large sign that says "Bank Pekao SA"; on the other, the sign says "Grupa (Group) Pekao SA".

Touted as the world's first Federal Reserve Board-approved internet bank, Security First Network Bank (SFNB) was one of 1996's hottest internet IPOs. The $48.8 million deal, sole-managed by Friedman Billings Ramsey, a Virginia-based investment-banking boutique, was priced at $20 a share. Some early investors may have done well, as the share price more than doubled to $45 soon after launch. But the virtual bank, which had garnered only about $55 million in deposits by the end of 1997, was just a little too far ahead of its time. The Atlanta-based company focused on developing its widely acclaimed software, and didn't have anything left over to build the bank. Losses for 1996 and 1997 totalled $50 million, $3 million more than SFNB had raised during the public offering. The stock sank into the single digits last year.

Charles Harman's arrival at his new job with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) in December was the latest step in a career that has seen him rise rapidly through the ranks of investment banks focusing on central Europe and Russia.

How did Asia's foremost investment bank come to grief? Andre Lee - seen by many as the villain of the piece - speaks out for the first time. He tells Peter Lee about the internal tensions at Peregrine, the role of his fixed-income business, the firm's culture of credit management and the source of the rumours that broke the bank

Business travel poll 1998: A hard landing in Asia

When a top Malaysian bank revealed its losses in March, the country was stunned. The suicidal lending of Sime Bank undermined the government's claim that Asia's problems were not Malaysia's problems. The country was just as stunned when top financier Rashid Hussain stepped in to buy the troubled bank. Steven Irvine reports.

Move over Bob Dylan, here comes Got Jakapun and his own brand of social comment, Thai style.

The Euromoney that never was. To salute the departure of editor Garry Evans after eight years' gallant service the magazine produced a special version of its monthly cover, a real collector's item. This is Evans in his triumphant role as Alberto Schultz, the Leeson-style villain of a simulated bank crash, the Fall of Mulhouse Brand, performed last August. Evans is now a market strategist at HSBC Securities in Tokyo, researching the very stocks whose demon behaviour triggered Leeson's downfall. His fluent Japanese and skilful editorship through the volatile 1990s should prepare him for anything the Nikkei can throw at him. But will he now be able to get to closer grips with that much-needed reform of Japanese finance, which he called for so often in his editorials?