Thank you, Mam

Spectator, The, Oct 23, 1999 by Fildes, Christopher

NOW Peter Stormonth-Darling suggests that the great man was in the wrong business. Siegmund Warburg had always despised investment management, which was used by less high-minded bankers as a receptacle for their mistakes. He had tried to sell Mercury Asset Management or even to give it away, and finally floated it, with Warburgs keeping 75 per cent.

Hence City Cinderella as the title for Mr StormonthDarling's account (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, L20) of his life and times at Mam, where he was chairman, and Warburgs. Cinderella grew to be the richer sister. It was her dowry that Warburgs would have brought to its illstarred match with Morgan Stanley. Mam made a scene, Morgan Stanley pulled out and Warburgs was left stranded at the church door to be picked up by a passing gnome. What went wrong? Mr StormonthDarling grumbles that Mam was never consulted about Warburgs's ambitions. Certainly the costs got out of hand. I remember the set of accounts showing that the average salary at Warburgs, tea-ladies included, ran into six figures. The basic mistake, so he says, was to be absorbed into the City establishment. (Being cast as a national champion was no help.) Lunching at Warburgs at the time, I was surprised to be offered an excellent claret. It would never have happened in Siegmund's day.