IFR 03.7.2020

Bellwether: n. From the practice of placing a bell around the

neck of a castrated ram so that it might lead its flock

Bellwether

18 International Financing Review March 7 2020

Who’s moving where...

ON JANUARY 24, 10-year-old Manchester United fan Daragh

Curley wrote a letter to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp

asking his team to stop winning. Since then, the Premier

League’s runaway leaders have slumped to three defeats,

having previously lost only once. The question is whether

Curley is also controlling global stock markets, which

have also been in free-fall after a period of unbroken

gains.

Maybe not. But perhaps Curley has a banking equivalent

in Sergio Ermotti, who posted a video on Twitter on January

21 in which he reviewed UBS’s annual results and gave his

outlook for the year.

“2020 looks like a year that will be a little bit more

constructive than a year ago,” he said. Since then, global

equity markets have entered correction territory and UBS

has announced plans to replace Ermotti as its CEO. Ermotti

may have wished he’d said nothing.

The alternative is to follow the economists’ rule: if

you want to be right, forecast often. On Tuesday, Oxford

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the US Federal Reserve.

“We believe the Fed will wait until the 17–18 March

meeting to lower rates since an inter-meeting easing

could ignite further panic in the markets,” it said.

Exactly 47 minutes later, the Fed did just that. And

how did Oxford respond? Without the barest hint of

embarrassment it quickly dashed out a note entitled:

“Fed proceeds with emergency coronavirus rate

cut.” Well played. At least it was right about the

panic.

KUDOS TO UNICREDIT for its support of Italy’s Department of

Civil Protection with a donation of €2m for the purchase of

masks and medical equipment as part of the country’s plan

to control the coronavirus.

According to Bellwether’s rough calculations, €2m could

probably have bought about 60m masks a couple of months

ago, or one for every Italian. Now, thanks to panic-buying,

based on Amazon prices, it would be lucky to get 96,348 –

or one for every UniCredit employee.

GALLOWS HUMOUR SEEMS to be the order of the day at HSBC,

where the bank is in the midst of a painful restructuring

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On Thursday, the bank evacuated 100 staff from

its European headquarters in Canary Wharf after a

MEMBERûOFûSTAFFûWASûCONlRMEDûASûHAVINGûCONTRACTEDûTHEû

coronavirus.

While the staff member self-isolated, the rest of the

TEAMûWASûSENTûHOMEûANDûTHEûOFlCEûWASûCLEAREDûANDûDEEP

cleaned, prompting one wag to say: “when people say call

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CLEANINGûCOMPANYû7EûDONTûKNOWûIFûWEREûGOINGûTOûBEûlREDû

or evacuated.”

FORMER SPURS AND Switzerland football player Ramon

Vega has wound up his eponymous hedge fund,

Vega Swiss Asset Management, following investment

losses.

Vega was known for his defensive qualities as a player but

appears to have left himself wide open at the back in the

investment game. After a decent start following its launch

in 2008, VAM has now been relegated to the also-rans of

hedge funds. Like football, it would appear it’s a game of

two halves. „

„ Chris Wyke and

Julian Biggins have

taken up the reins as

joint CEOs of MOELIS

AUSTRALIA. Andrew

Pridham, who has

served as CEO since

2009, has been

appointed group vice-

chairman. Wyke,

Biggins and Pridham

were among several JP

Morgan bankers hired

by US boutique Moelis

& Co when it set up

operations in Australia

a decade ago. Moelis &

Co retains a 19.9%

ownership in Moelis

Australia. Wyke and

Biggins previously

worked in JP Morgan’s

real estate investment

banking team, and

both have worked at

UBS.

„ UBS CEO Sergio

Ermotti is set to join

SWISS RE next year as

its chairman. The

world’s second-biggest

reinsurer has

nominated Ermotti,

who is due to step

down from UBS at the

end of October, for a

board seat at its AGM.

He would then replace

Walter Kielholz as

chairman from 2021.

UBS last month said

ING chief executive

Ralph Hamers will

succeed Ermotti as

CEO. Ermotti has led

UBS since 2011.

„ INTERMEDIATE

CAPITAL GROUP has

hired Rob Faulkner

from Barings, where he

was responsible for

managing the firm’s

European CLO

platform. Faulkner

spent 18 years at

Barings, where he

worked with Zak

Summerscale until the

latter left to head ICG’s

credit fund

management business

in 2016. Faulkner will

join Summerscale’s

group in June as a

managing director

responsible for

European CLOs.

5 IFR PM 2323 p 15 - 24 .indd 18 06 / 03 / 2020 19 : 22 : 44