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S. G. Warburg & Co.

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S. G. Warburg & Co.
Company typePublic
IndustryBanking
Founded1946
FounderHenry Grunfeld Edit this on Wikidata
Defunct1995
FateAcquired
SuccessorSwiss Bank Corporation
HeadquartersLondon, UK
Key people
Sir Siegmund George Warburg, (Chairman)
Number of employees
6,000

S. G. Warburg & Co. was a London-based investment bank. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The firm was acquired by the Swiss Bank Corporation in 1995 and ultimately became a part of UBS.

History

Founding and Early History

This bank was founded in 1946 by Siegmund Warburg and Henry Grunfeld. Siegmund was a member of the Warburg family, a prominent German-Jewish banking family. Henry Grunfeld was a former industrialist in the German steel industry, and is also Jewish.[1] Warburg and Grunfeld fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s.[1]

S. G. Warburg and Co. were recognized for its pioneering mergers and takeover work in the UK in the 1960s. These works included the first ever hostile takeover in the UK and the first-ever Eurobond issue, which fostered the new Eurodollar market. The firm's acquisition of Seligman Bros. in 1957 was a significant event in its rise to prominence; through this, Warburg gained a place on the Accepting Houses Committee, which is composed of the 17 top merchant banks with access to cheap capital backed by the Bank of England.[2]

In 1958–1959, Tube Investments, advised by S. G. Warburg & Co, fought a fierce and ultimately successful battle to acquire British Aluminium. This battle is now remembered as the "Aluminium War".[1]

The 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s

The bank gained clients and grew rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s. The companies strong work ethic and rigorous intellectual culture stood in stark contrast to the gentlemanly and clubbable environment of the traditional City houses.

In the early 1970s, S. G. Warburg entered into a U.S. joint venture with Paris-based Paribas (Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, prior to the bank's nationalization in 1982) named Mercury Securities.[3][4] In 1974, S. G. Warburg and Paribas took a 40% interest in A.G. Becker & Co., a U.S.-based brokerage. Although the joint venture initially provided an international dimension for its three members, the relationships soured in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[5] The joint venture was plagued by competition between Warburg and Paribas, as well as cultural conflicts between French, English, and American executives. Although Warburg had originally planned to buy out Paribas, after Siegmund Warburg's death, Paribas bought out Warburg's interest in the joint venture in early 1983. Following the departure of Warburg from the joint venture, the firm was renamed A.G. Becker Paribas.[5][6][7]

A major participant in the "Big Bang" reforms of the 1980s under the leadership of its Chief Executive Sir David Scholey, it acquired stockjobber Ackroyd & Smithers, stockbroker Rowe & Pitman, and the government gilt broker Mullens & Co. The bank became the preeminent UK-based M&A (merger and acquisition) adviser, equity underwriter, research house and (via its Mercury Asset Management subsidiary) asset manager by the early 1990s, employing some 6,000 people worldwide.

Purchase by the Swiss Bank Corporation (1995)

Following another flawed and costly expansion into the United States, in 1994 a merger was announced with Morgan Stanley, but the talks collapsed.[8]

The following year S. G. Warburg was purchased by Swiss Bank Corporation.[9] Swiss Bank Corporation merged S. G. Warburg with its own existing investment banking unit to create SBC Warburg, which became a leading player in global investment banking.[10] In 1997, SBC Warburg was merged with U.S. investment bank Dillon, Read & Co. to create Warburg Dillon Read.

After the merger of Swiss Bank Corporation and Union Bank of Switzerland in 1998, Warburg Dillon Read was renamed, UBS Warburg. The Warburg name was finally retired in 2003 when the investment banking operation of UBS was renamed UBS Investment Bank.[11]

Notable current and former employees

Business

Politics

Other

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Outsider who changed the City[permanent dead link‍] Management Today, 1 November 1998
  2. ^ Chernow, p. 646
  3. ^ Manfred Pohl, Sabine Freitag. Handbook on the history of European banks. Edward Elgar Publishing, 1994
  4. ^ "The Financial Times has examined the problems which caused S. G. Warburg, a Mercury Securities subsidiary, and Paribas to lift their joint stake in A G Becker-Warburg Paribas Becker to just over 50%." Financial Times, July 13, 1982
  5. ^ a b "Becker Paribus: An Ill-Fated Union". New York Times, August 7, 1984
  6. ^ "French Partner To Buy British Share In Becker". New York Times, March 24, 1983
  7. ^ Kathryn Rudie Harrigan. Joint Ventures, Alliances, and Corporate Strategy. Beard Books, 2003
  8. ^ "Jilted: Morgan Stanley and S. G. Warburg", The Economist, December 1994
  9. ^ "Swiss Bank in deal to buy S. G. Warburg", New York Times, May 11, 1995
  10. ^ "SBC Warburg Company History". Funding Universe, Retrieved August 10, 2010
  11. ^ "UBS means RIP for Warburg", The Telegraph, Nov 13, 2002

Bibliography

  • WetFeet.com (2001). The WetFeet.com Insider Guide: Warburg Dillon Read. San Francisco, CA: WetFeet.com. ISBN 1-58207-078-4.
  • Chernow, Ron (1993). The Warburgs: The Twentieth-century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-41823-7.
  • Attali, Jacques (1985). A Man of Influence: The Extraordinary Career of S.G. Warburg. Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler. ISBN 0-917561-36-8.
  • Farrer, David (1974). The Warburgs: The Story of a Family. New York: Stein and Day. ISBN 0-8128-1733-8.
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