Freud in the City - Hardcover

Freud, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1903071100 ISBN 13: 9781903071106

Publisher: Bene Factum Publishing Ltd, 2006

Synopsis

A phone call from a head-hunter in 1983 plunged an unsuspecting FT journalist into one of the most turbulent periods in the City’s history.

David Freud, great grandson of Sigmund, joined stockbrokers Rowe & Pitman just as the global finance revolution took off. His first-hand account of some of the largest and most controversial deals of the last twenty years reveals the tensions, the rivalries, the cock-ups, and the break-neck pace of life in the City during this period.

The reality of life in the City confounded David Freud’s preconceptions. Far from being an anonymous shuffler of money between faceless institutions, it proved to be a battle-ground of individualism, dominated by powerful characters accustomed to taking tough decisions in a pressurised, gossip-fuelled environment. And as the global revolution advanced, a sense of desperation ignited extreme levels of competition, with too many financial institutions jockeying for position in a diminishing marketplace.

David Freud was at the centre of it all. He played a pivotal role in the flotation of Eurotunnel, against the backdrop of Black Monday. His Warburg Euro Disney team launched the first truly pan-European flotation, raising £600m – only to be faced with potential disaster when the price went into tail-spin. David Freud writes about the highs and lows of financing the Channel Tunnel Railway Link and admitting to Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, that they’d got their sums massively – by £1.2bn – wrong.

He was part of the Warburg Group’s break-neck expansion which ended in humiliation and collapse and played a key role in its renaissance as UBS as its new Swiss owners rebuilt the bank’s position in the financial markets of London and around the world.

This inside story of the City at its most dynamic is, as playwright David Hare says, "a highly readable, morally ambiguous account of twenty crazy years of buoyant capitalism".

About this title

Review

Only rarely does literature about the world of finance break out of its "special interest" bracket and grasp the imagination of the wider public... It is before Freud reaches the pinnacle of his career that his account is at its best, offering an intimate insight into the workings of an investment bank in the 1990s.' -- The New Statesman

Perhaps David Freud's greatest respray job was the stockmarket flotation of Eurotunnel. Not only did he come up with a clever way to make shares in Eurotunnel plc seem more than a wing-and-a-prayer speculation, he managed to flog the stock at the height of the stockmarket crash of 1987...It was not particularly surprising that John Hutton, the Work and Pension Secretary, should turn to this particular ex-banker when ordered by Tony Blair to come up with something snappy on welfare reform.' -- The Independent

`...dispels the urban myth that life in the City is all about anonymous money shufflers dealing with faceless institutions.'
-- institutions.' Accountancy Age

`...the book is a tremendously good read. It romps through huge deals that Freud was involved in. Many people will treat this book as a ripping yarn. It actually raises deeper questions.' -- Financial World

`He is a natural storyteller with an ability to write about complicated financial issues in plain English...Frankness is one of the many merits of this engaging and amusing autobiography...City investment banking changed over Freud's career to a far more competitive, fast-paced business where individual talent was increasingly important. He captures the chaos, cut and thrust and sheer comedy of this world.' -- Financial Times

From the Publisher

Newscaster and journalist John Humphrys writes about Freud in the City - "Extraodinary...a book about the City and its wheelerdealers that is both gripping and fun".
Extracts recently serialised in the Daily Telegraph's business section has helped to make this currently the most talked about book in the City.
Tragicomic, full of insight, David Freud's insider account is written with pace and illumination as to what really really goes on in the most dynamic part of the British economy, the City of London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bene Factum Publishing Ltd
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1903071100
• ISBN 13: 9781903071106
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 386