Keyser Ullman was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

merchant bank A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in commodi ...

, based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and founded in 1868.

History

Foundation

Samuel Montagu Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling (21 December 1832 – 12 January 1911), was a British banker who founded the bank of Samuel Montagu & Co. He was a philanthropist and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1900, a ...

(1832–1911) and his two original partners in the bank Samuel Montagu & Co.,

Ellis Abraham Franklin Ellis Abraham Franklin (5 October 1822 – 11 May 1909) was a British merchant banker. Early life Franklin was the son of Abraham Franklin (1784–1854), a silversmith and licensed navy agent, who started in Portsmouth, then later moved to ...

(1822–1909) and Edwin Louis Samuel (1825–1877), had four sons each. Wishing to provide employment opportunities for all twelve sons, Samuel Montagu and his partners decided to open a new bank. Controlled by Samuel Montagu, it was managed by two of his employees, Assam Keyser and Gustav Bitter, and named A. Keyser & Co.. The agreement between the three partners was, that each of them would be able to place two sons at Samuel Montagu & Co. and two sons at A. Keyser & Co.. But things did not work out quite like planned and the two companies became completely separate in 1909. In ''The Rise of Merchant Banking'', Stanley D. Chapman describes Keyser & Co as a "second eleven" for the numerous sons of the Samuels, Montagus, and the Franklins. In 1962, it acquired the Ullmann bank and in 1965 changed its name to Keyser Ullmann (KU). In the early 1970s, the bank, particularly through its managing directors,

Roland Franklin Sir Roland Arthur Ellis Franklin (born 5 May 1926) is a British-born Antigua and Barbuda-based merchant banker. Early life Roland Franklin was born in 1926 into an affluent and influential British Jewish family. His father, Ellis Arthur Franklin ...

and

Ian Stoutzker Sir Ian Isaac Stoutzker CBE is a British banker, musician and philanthropist. He was born in England in 1929. Sir Ian was born into a musical family. His father was the Cantor at the Central Synagogue in London and his mother, Dora Cohen, a piano ...

, became very active in corporate finance. One very substantial part of this business was its role as financial adviser to some of the companies associated with

Sir James Goldsmith Sir James Michael Goldsmith (26 February 1933 – 18 July 1997) was a French-British financier, tycoon''Billionaire: The Life and Times of Sir James Goldsmith'' by Ivan Fallon and politician who was a member of the Goldsmith family. His contr ...

Demise

Sir Edward du Cann, a Member of Parliament (MP) and former chairman of the Conservative Party, was chairman of Keyser Ullman from 1970 to 1975. In October 1974, du Cann and the executive of the 1922 Committee met at du Cann's Keyser Ullman offices in Milk Street, where it was decided that the Committee would press

Edward Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conserv ...

to hold a leadership election, which led to

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

becoming party leader. The press called them the "Milk Street Mafia". A Department of Trade and Industry report into the failure of Keyser Ullman found du Cann to have been "incompetent" while chairman between 1970 and 1975. "In 1973, the bank lent £17m to a 28-year- old entrepreneur, Christopher Selmes, secured on a valueless guarantee. Mr Selmes later fled the country, leaving debts of more than £20m." Property developer

Jack Dellal Jack Dellal (2 October 1923 – 28 October 2012) was a British property investor, nicknamed "Black Jack". His company, the property group Allied Commercial Holdings, financed the purchase of Shell Mex House in 2002 and sold it in 2007. Dellal ha ...

(1923–2012) sold his merchant bank,

Dalton Barton Dalton may refer to: Science * Dalton (crater), a lunar crater * Dalton (program), chemistry software * Dalton (unit) (Da), the atomic mass unit * John Dalton, chemist, physicist and meteorologist Entertainment * Dalton (Buffyverse), minor ch ...

to Keyser Ullman for £58m just before the 1973-74 banking crisis that caused Keyser's failure. Dellal was deputy chairman of Keyser and some have argued that he was "prime culprit" in the failure of Keyser Ullman and du Cann's resulting bankruptcy. Keyser Ullman was saved by the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

and eventually sold to

Charterhouse Bank Charterhouse Bank was a British investment bank. History Charterhouse Bank was incorporated as an investment bank in December 1920. In 1925, Charterhouse Investment Trust was created, with its first sponsored issue being that of International Pul ...

in 1981.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keyser Ullman Banks established in 1868 Defunct banks of the United Kingdom