Borrowers and investors came from all over the world to gather at the Global Borrowers and Investors Forum, held in London's Hilton hotel this week. Among the names in the MTN market were Islandsbanki's Bill Symington, CNCEP's Cyril Bonnet and SEK's Johanna Clason. And it seems like the freebies are getting better every year. Of course the pens didn't work and the chocolates melted in the bottom of the carrier bags, but the umbrellas were useful, given that the weather was scorching, and HSBC's alarm clocks went off a treat - right in the middle of the discussion panels. These interruptions didn't stop the delegates from being very polite to each other whilst on stage, although tempers frayed by Thursday lunchtime, as one delegate pinched someone else's seat and was told to "S*d off!" Leak warns of some dubious characters that have conned their way into the MTN market this week via the Bloomberg directory. Dot Cotton, the chain-smoking granny from UK soap opera Eastenders, has infiltrated the screens and posted her photo in the slot reserved for HSBC's Evie Christodoulidou. And Fergus Kiely from the same bank has had his Bloomberg space hijacked by Derek "Del Boy" Trotter - the dodgy marketstall trader from UK TV sitcom Only Fools and Horses. Leak has put two and two together and concluded that it must have been Del Boy that sold the alarm clocks to HSBC.
June 22, 2001