Peregrine (including Peregrine Investments Holdings Limited and Peregrine Infrastructure Investments Limited) was an investment company based in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. It was liquidated following the downturn of the

Indonesian economy The economy of Indonesia is the largest in Southeast Asia and is one of the emerging market economies. As a middle-income country and member of the G20, Indonesia is classified as a newly industrialized country. It is the 17th largest economy ...

during the

Asian financial crisis The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998–1 ...

, and was acquired by

BNP Paribas BNP Paribas is a French international banking group, founded in 2000 from the merger between Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP, "National Bank of Paris") and Paribas, formerly known as the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas. The full name of the grou ...

History

The Founding of the Company

Peregrine was founded in 1988 with an initial investment of $38 million by former race car driver Philip Tose and Francis Leung. They had both worked with Citibank in the past and had a large number of connections to Hong Kong's business elite including

Li Ka-shing Sir Ka-shing Li (; born 13 June 1928) is a Hong Kong billionaire business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. As of June 2019, Li is the 31st richest person in the world, with an estimated net wealth of US$33.4 billion. He is the senior ad ...

Gordon Wu Sir Gordon Wu Ying-sheung,Gordon WU Ying-Sheung biography
- website o ...

and

Larry Yung Larry Yung Chi-kin or Rong Zhijian (; born 31 January 1942) is a Chinese businessman and the former chairman of CITIC Pacific, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate. According to Hurun Report, he was one of the wealthiest people in mainland China, with ...

. The company's goal was to profit from the expanding Asian economy by underwriting stocks and bonds to provide capital for the Asian countries, especially the

East Asian Tigers The Four Asian Tigers (also known as the Four Asian Dragons or Four Little Dragons in Chinese and Korean) are the developed East Asian economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. Between the early 1960s and 1990s, they underwent ra ...

.Anthony Spaeth
"The Hunt Is Over"
''Time Magazine'', Asia Edition, 26 January 1998, Vol. 151, No. 3, accessed 11 August 2005

Culture

The company was characterised as "arrogant", and thrived on taking risks. Commenting on their investing during the

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

, Leung said, "These events were just a hiccup. We decided we wanted to take advantage of depressed market conditions at the time".Edward A. Gargan
"Hong Kong's Peregrine Soared Like a Falcon, Sank Like a Reckless Bank"

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

, 13 January 1998 In 1994, to create an Asian bond market, they hired Andre Lee from

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Gol ...

to head their fixed income department. Lee, a French Canadian-Korean who grew up within the American military presence in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, was described as a "wild man" and "a salesman who could 'sell snow to the Eskimos.'" By 1996, Lee's operations provided one half of Peregrine's profits. Almost single-handedly, Lee created the Asian junk bond market.

Bill Hwang Sung Kook Hwang (Korean: 황성국), also known as Bill Hwang, is a Korean-born American investor and trader. In April 2021, ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported that Hwang lost US$20billion over 10 days in late March, imposing large losses on ...

the

hedge fund A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as sho ...

was once employed by the company.

Financial Collapse

In 1998, financial markets were changing. Peregrine underwrote the bond issue by Steady Safe, an Indonesian taxi company of US$265 million, half of Peregrine's capital On the surface, the deal looked secure, although repayment would be in

Indonesian rupiah The rupiah (Currency symbol, symbol: Rp; ISO 4217, currency code: IDR) is the official currency of Indonesia. It is issued and controlled by Bank Indonesia. The name "Rupee, rupiah" is derived from the Sanskrit word for silver, (). Sometimes, I ...

. The deal was undersubscribed, and Peregrine was left with the remaining bonds as the underwriter. Following the collapse of Steady Safe along with several other losses during the Asian financial crisis, the company lost all liquidity and after unsuccessful negotiations with would-be suitors and white knights, and closed in January 1998. The Greater China team stumbled into the arms of

, while a substantial portion of the Asia team (ex-China) was hired by

Banco Santander Banco Santander, S.A., doing business as Santander Group (, , Spanish: ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Santander in Spain. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in all global financial centres ...

Current operations

BNP Paribas Peregrine is now the investment banking arm of BNP Paribas in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. It delivers integrated investment banking services covering primary and seconding equity fund raising, underwriting and securities brokerages, corporate finance, financial advisory, mergers and acquisitions. At the end of 2006, BNP announced it was aligning its branding throughout Asia, and the Peregrine name was dropped.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Peregrine: Hong Kong Court upholds - DeaconsReport of Peregine Investment Collapse by Hong Kong Government Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau
Defunct companies of Hong Kong BNP Paribas Financial services companies established in 1988 1988 establishments in Hong Kong Financial services companies disestablished in 1998 1998 disestablishments in Hong Kong