Chuck Prince has been horribly pilloried for his now infamous “we’re still dancing” comments that came in July, just before the blow up in August. But the fact is that any bank that quit a market ahead of the peak, and any major investment bank that was absent from a key sector at a time of huge build up, would be punished by shareholders for giving up profits.
It is easy to be wise with hindsight, but it is all rather obvious now that off-balance sheet vehicles work fine when they are being used for authentic assets that banks really wanted to generate but have decided, for balance sheet management reasons, would be better securitised.
Dresdner Kleinwort is ahead of the advisory pack in terms of deal value in European electricity mergers and acquisitions this year. The bank’s utilities and natural resources team talk to Edward Russell-Walling about their recent success in one of the most difficult deals in cross-border history, Enel’s takeover of Endesa.