Tony Wilson, head of CPs and MTNs, Daiwa in 1996. When one of Tony Wilson's ex-colleagues heard that he had jumped on the internet bandwagon he laughed and said: "Tony's not exactly your typical dotcomer." Though Wilson is the first to admit he is not a html connoisseur, he has joined DealComposer as a senior marketing manager. And he is a born marketing man. He says: "Yes, I know many people were surprised when they found out. And I'm happy to admit I'm not a technology expert but I sometimes use that as a marketing point - if I can use this system, then anyone can. And it is tremendously exciting being involved with something from the beginning and really getting stuck in." He clearly loves his new job, which he started in July. DealComposer is a secure website that promises to offer a comprehensive service to issuers looking to raise capital. The site wants to become an online community that reflects all aspects of the market, from lawyers drafting documents to investors trading secondary bonds. It is his marketing experience and list of contacts that is invaluable to a company that is trying to persuade issuers, investment banks and lawyers to use the system. During his time at Daiwa he once bribed his children, during the school holidays, to organize all his business cards. And, after they had sorted them all out on the dining-room table by geographical area, they counted a total of 6000 cards. These contacts were made in a career that has been almost exclusively dedicated to banking. His last job in the capital markets was at Daiwa, where he ran the CP and MTN desks between 1987 and 1998. He left when Daiwa, along with most Japanese houses, tightened their belts after the Russian and Asian crises. And after only a few months out of the business Wilson ended up working for Arab Bank which, like his move to DealComposer, surprised many. But Wilson says he enjoyed promoting a little-known name, and he enjoyed the travel. For though Wilson speaks like the quintessential English gentleman he is, he has lived for 15 years of his adult life in Canada. And the half-Greek, half-English, 52 year-old spent much of his childhood away from his native London. His father worked for the tyre company Dunlop, a job that took his family around the world. Wilson has vivid memories of living both in Beirut and Rome. After school and a brief stint as an estate agent in London, Wilson decided in 1969 to immigrate to Canada. He got a job in commercial banking working for Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto and ended up becoming a branch manager. But he realised that if he was to stay a banker there were better salaries to be earnt in trading. So he moved to Wood Gundy in 1980 where he traded US domestic CPs. In 1985, on a holiday in the UK, he bumped into an old friend who suggested that with the Euro-CP market taking off in London he ought to move back. He cut his holiday short to visit some CP houses and within a few days was offered a job by Len Harwood at Citibank. He spent less than two years there before going on to set up Daiwa's CP business. And soon he was running its MTN business as well. He says that in those days it was a common move to make. He was one of a handful of CP people who went on to be responsible for MTNs as well: Martin Goldberg at Lehman, Pieter van Dyck at SBC, John Ford at Citibank. Harwood, who is considered by some to be the co-inventor of the Euro-MTN with Kevin Regan, has nothing but praise for Wilson. He says: "Tony is an extremely affable guy. He's one of those individuals who always help people do that extra little bit. He is liked and respected by everyone." And, despite his 13 years in the business, Wilson seems more pleased by what he has achieved outside the market. He is particularly proud of establishing the Euro-CP charity dinner, which has now become a regular fixture in the market's calendar, attracting well over 300 people. He was the first chairman of the IPMA MTN sub-committee as well as being the chair of the ECP Association 1991-1998. He says: "I think an MTN sub-committee was important because the market needed promoting. In those days it was more important to promote the difference between bonds and MTNs, which of course is not so important now." He is very keen to stress that he didn't start these committees and that he shouldn't take any undue credit for any work they achieved. One of his greatest regrets is that the uniform pricing supplement, one of the MTN sub-committee's more lasting achievements and something Wilson pushed hard for, was implemented just a few months after he left the market. But at heart he is the ultimate committee man, and seems to have set up or run a committee for every institution he has been a part of. When he was at Daiwa he set up the Daiwa sports and social club to encourage everyone to get to know each other at the bank in a non-office environment. He would organise evenings where 80 people from the bank would take part in a 10-pin bowling competition. Even at the exclusive Queen's club and Hurlingham club, where he indulges his passion for racket sports, he runs the real tennis and rackets committees. But his successes out of the market should not distract from the role he played in the CP and MTN worlds. His main role at Daiwa was as a product manager, first for CP and then for MTNs. He is aware that such dedicated originators are a dying breed. He says: "Marketing people became less important once the market reached critical mass. Reverse enquiry became more important than being a named dealer on a programme. And desks needed people with structuring skills." But he thinks the post is still crucial for banks building up a business. He is very interested in the number of houses which left the Euro-CP market at the beginning of the 1990s and are now re-joining the fray. "When Merrill Lynch pulled out of Euro-CPs in the early 1990s there were still over 20 houses doing business. It was more of a struggle in those days to get market share. But I think there is now money to be made in Euro-CPs." However, he warns that it will not be easy for CSFB, Dresdner Bank, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and Merrill Lynch, all of which have rejoined the market or announced their intention to do so. He says: "It could potentially be less profitable if too many houses jump back in, but that won't happen for a while."
October 06, 2000
