Brian Bollen's Blog

Who Am I?

I am a globally renowned award-winning freelance journalist (2010 Journalist of the Year - Investor Services Technology - Online/Wires State Street Press Awards). I specialise in international, institutional finance, writing about everything from mergers and acquisitions, private equity and hedge funds, to securities services and many other arcane topics, including property (commercial and residential), management and recruitment (both in the public and private sectors), and sport (football, athletics and skiing have all featured in my assignment diary at different times).

I am rare amongst financial journalists in that I have a banking background, having benefitted from the graduate training programme at the late, lamented Midland Bank International Division from 1979-84. I believe I might be unique amongst financial journalists in being a Fellow of the ifs School of Finance (FIFS).

International Speech Contest

Underlining the strength in depth of speaking skills in the area, the North Bucks Speakers heat of this year's International Speech Contest attracted five high calibre entries from (in order of speaking) John Schell, Anthony Crow, Brian Bollen, Leon Welsh and Jason Johns. The honours in a close run competition went to Jason Johns for his thoughtful motivational address entitled: “Is It Really Possible?”

John Schell was runner-up.

Brian Bollen, to his clear astonishment, won the Speech Evaluation contest, despite the sterling efforts of Peter Giesinger, Dave Minzey and Leon Welsh to evaluate a speech prepared at very short notice by Margaret Bollen. “They say you should never evaluate a speech by your wife, or partner, but Toastmasters is all about stepping beyond and therefore extending your comfort zone, and this was a prime example of that,” said Brian.

Images of Sport: Airdrieonians Football Club

Images of Sport: Airdrieonians Football Club, from Tempus Publishing Ltd, is available to order via Amazon.co.uk. "A snip at just GBP11.99, and an ideal Christmas or birthday present for football followers, and social and fashion historians.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0752427296/webperks-21/026-3088883-8909216

Airdrieonians FC, long known to their fans and others as The Diamonds, has a unique place in Scottish football history.

Formed a decade earlier than Glasgow Celtic, Airdrieonians made their reputation locally in 1885 by winning a charity football tournament run by the local cricket club. The following year Airdrieonians furthered that reputation nationally by inflicting a humiliating 10-2 defeat upon Glasgow Rangers, that club's worst known loss on its own ground.

Financial Times

Since going freelance in January 1993, I have worked as a writer, editor or media coach for many financial publications and financial insitutions of one size or another, including the following: Financial Times, FTFM, Financial Times Newsletters, Financial Times Management Reports, Financial News, Private Equity News, Mourant Private Equity, Amadeus Capital Partners, Union Bank of Switzerland, ING Barings, Baring Asset Management, ING Bank, Gartmore Investment Management, Bank of America, ABN Amro Hoare Govett, NatWest Markets, Euromoney, Euromoney Corporate Finance, Euromoney International Bond Investor, IBM/River Publishing, Freepages/Scoot.com, Halifax plc, Global Custody Review, GSCS Benchmarks, Financial News, The Banker, ANZ Bank, Real Time Financial Management, Hill & Knowlton/Bank of New York, Global Custodian, Investor Services Journal, Global Securities Lending, Catalyst Corporate Finance, Eurograduate Recruitment Annual, KPMG Corporate Financier, Société Générale Securities Services, RBC Dexia, Standard Chartered Singapore, State Street, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Northern Trust, ICMA.

Money Talks

A version of this article appeared in Private Equity News in May 2006

Money talks. And it talks as fluently in German as it does in the language of any other free market economy. This is one of the principal conclusions to be drawn from discussions with those close to private equity in Germany, where a genuine sea change in thinking seems to be taking place.

The realisation that there is money to be made by selling off unwanted businesses to private equity houses has blown away at least some of the suspicion that still stubbornly surrounds private equity in Germany. Corporates and families who either don't want to, or simply can't, face up to the changes that are needed to ensure a viable economic future arguably see the attractions of private equity more clearly today than ever before.

Very Familiar Forces

A version of this article appeared in Private Equity News in May 2006

The driving forces behind change and development in the provision of fund administration services to private equity firms sound familiar, very familiar indeed. In fact, they are mostly identical to the driving forces behind the outsourcing of fund administration services in the mainstream investment world.

One, the need for fund managers to seek out new ways to improve efficiency, and offset cost pressures. Two, the need to access better technology without incurring unsupportable new costs. Three, the increasing size and complexity of the private equity investment industry.

Securities Lending

Article originally appeared in Financial News

It might surprise non-specialists to learn that the turmoil experienced in Far Eastern markets over the past two years or so can be viewed as a positive selling point for the securities lending product. Anecdotal evidence suggests that any losses taken during this period were suffered not by lenders, as positions were recalled by agent banks from borrowers almost immediately, but by borrowers who were caught off guard.

Passport To Profits: A Guide To Global Investing

Originally published in the winter 1999 issue of Global Custody Review magazine

Passport To Profits: A Guide To Global Investing
by Mark Mobius (with Stephen Fenichell)
Orion Business books
Wellington House 125 Strand, London WC2R OBB
Tel: +44 20 7420 5555. Fax: +44 20 7836 3422
Pp422; £20.00 (in UK only)
ISBN 0-75281-016-2

Launched in London in the autumn with a personal appearance by investment guru Mark Mobius, Passport To Profits is an excellent read. Informative and entertaining both, it just about lives about to the writer's billing by the book's publicists as the Indiana Jones of the investment world.

Mobius, oft described as one of the most successful corporate investors, shares at least some of the secrets of his success in international investing in this unique insight into emerging markets. (Mobius has managed the high performance Templeton Emerging Markets Growth Fund since 1987; his returns have averaged 20% annually).

Private Equity

Article originally appeared in The Banker Magazine, January 2000

All the early indications are that 1999 will have turned out to be something of a landmark year for the private equity industry.

With less than a month to go before the New Year celebrations, the value of UK management buy-outs and management buy-ins for 1999 had beaten all records, already exceeding £15bn, according to early figures released by the Centre for Management Buy-Out Research, sponsored by Barclays Private Equity and Deloitte & Touche.

Based on recorded deals for the year to early December, the value of UK MBOs and MBIs had already beaten the 1998 total of £14.1bn by more than £1bn. Although the total number of transactions is down, average deal size has risen substantially, by 66% to over £35m. Bigger deals are again at the forefront and the number exceeding £100m has risen to 33, from 26 in 1998.

The Time Has Come, The Walrus Said

A version of this article appeared in Investor Services Journal, Summer 2006

The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things. Of shoes. And ships. Of sealing wax. Of securities lendings.

That's not true, of course, it was 'cabbages and kings', not securities lendings, but author Lewis Carroll would surely have had some fun writing about the arcane and often misunderstood world of securities lending, especially when the time comes to take a look back at the past 12 months and ahead to the next 12.

Opinions on how and where the market has developed, and on what lies ahead, are as many and varied as the underlying markets, even the underlying stocks. "It's been a very good year for both beneficial owners and providers," says Chris Jaynes, President of the auction specialist eSecLending. "People have seen solid growth in returns and in underlying demand. We are also seeing more borrowers participating on an exclusive basis and seeing increased demand for exclusives across a wide range of asset classes including fixed income."

United Biscuits: End Of An Era

The consolidation of the European biscuit industry more or less ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. It also ended with a transaction that forms part of a trend that is widely predicted to continue for the foreseeable future, as the details of the UK's post-industrial landscape begin to sharpen.

The sale of United Biscuits to an international consortium comprising financial buyers and trade buyers is being viewed by investment bankers specialising in food as marking the end of the shakeout in European biscuits. It leaves Danone of France and Nabisco of the US as the last two big rivals left standing.

Mainstream Management

A version of this article was riginally published in the June 2000 issue of The Banker magazine

Money market funds have become firmly established as a mainstream cash management tool in the USA. The stage is set for the UK and European markets to follow.

Beyond Europe, too, the prospects are hailed as bright. "We believe there are exciting opportunities everywhere," concludes Paul Thomson, head of offshore funds at Goldman Sachs in London. "Governments and corporates around the world are examining different ways of managing their cash; the use of triple-A-rated funds is gaining widespread acceptance as a means of achieving diversification quickly and cost-effectively without compromising on security."

The Butchers' Ball

Originally published in the winter 1999 issue of Global Custody Review magazine

The Butchers' Ball
by Mark B Cohen
Hodder & Stoughton
Pp 375; £16.99

ISBN --340-71298-8

www.brassmonkeys.com

We don't normally review fiction but will make an exception where the action or the author is connected to the financial world. Both are in this case, the author being one of the many Marks who while away the working day at Baring Asset Management in Bishopsgate, the main action taking place in an organisation which sounds very familiar.

Readers of his previous novel, Brass Monkeys, will recognise the style and elcome the return of characters such as Will Cloud, the pot-smoking Irish detective, and populist television presenter Candida Blitz. Workmates are no doubt having great fun working out who's based on whom. New readers will enjoy The Butchers' Ball on its own merits, and for its fond evocations of City life, past and present.

US Bank Results

One word recurs with almost monotonous regularity in the announcement of 1999 results at the major US investment banks. That word is 'record', with the explosion in mergers and acquisitions activity and strong equity issuance being the major driving forces behind performance. These factors combined with M&A-related financing and the rapid development of a corporate credit market in Europe following the introduction of the euro to produce a year of almost undiluted good news for the industry.

Custodians on the Net

Article originally appeared in Financial News Global Custody Review survey in September 2000

"The Internet is transforming securities services, effectively exploding boundaries and changing the concept of information on demand into reality." Thus spake Tom Perna, senior executive vice president, Bank of New York, in a recent article entitled Web Technology at the Core of Industry Evolution. "The impact of the medium is just beginning to be felt."

The Secret Life of GIPS

A version of this article appeared in the Financial Times FT FM report on July 31 2006

The perception of Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) as the driest of esoteric subjects presents a significant barrier to explaining their importance. But this is a hurdle that must be overcome by wise investors, both individuals and institutions. The standards are there to enable them to make decisions about who is best qualified to look after their money on a more fully informed basis.

LDI: Right or Wrong?

A version of this story appeared in the Spring 2006 issue of European Fund Manager

Is the shift towards liability-driven investment (LDI) fundamentally flawed as a concept and appallingly timed in its execution? The posing of that question to a number of industry participants sparked a broad range of reactions, some positive, some negative, some supportive of the thesis, others dismissive, even hostile. Brian Bollen reports.

Hitting The Nail On The Head

The principal findings of this LDI mini-survey are not universal. Broadly speaking, there is agreement that the first part of the proposition is wrong, while the second part hits the nail on the head. Paul Bourdon, Director of Investment Solutions at Threadneedle Investments, disagrees with both premises. "Pension funds have an obligation to produce a portfolio that delivers the pension liabilities it must meet," he summarises simply. "Any portfolio constructed without due regard for that basic truth is fundamentally flawed."

International Banking: Review of 2005

This article first appeared in Eurograduate 2006, an annual publication published by Setform Ltd
by Brian Bollen and Jennifer E Bollen 

The international banking market has proved a hive of activity in 2005, and that activity looks certain to continue during 2006 and beyond. Internationalisation is the order of the day at both the wholesale and retail level, with interesting developments taking place around the world. Many emerging markets are witnessing an expansion in the presence of a growing number of foreign-headquartered banks, opening up new opportunities on a global scale. Who could possibly have forecast ten years ago, even five years ago, that BNP Paribas would be acquiring a 51% stake in a Ukrainian bank? Or that JP Morgan Chase would be announcing its intention to have a total of 9,000 Indian staff by the end of 2007, one-third of whom will work for its investment bank? Or that Morgan Stanley would be opening a branch in Dubai, its first on-the-ground commitment to the region?

Custodian Quality

Article originally appeared in Financial Times Global Custody Review survey in July 1999

The quest to deliver quality service in global custody is intensifying, in tandem with the growth of customer demand for such service, the growing breadth and complexity of the global custody product and the custodian's role, and the increasing need for providers to differentiate themselves from the opposition.

Speedy Hire Founders Head For Exit

A version of this article first appeared in Corporate Financier magazine

"There are few more impressive sights in the world than a Scotsman on the make," wrote the Scots playwright J M Barrie, creator of the ultimate boy who never grew up, Peter Pan. More than 70 years later, the observation rings as true as ever. While much of the land north of Hadrian's Wall is so imbued with the ethos of the welfare state and benefits culture that it could easily pass for a Soviet Socialist Republic on a bad day, pockets of entrepreneurialism and wealth creation do remain. One of those is LCH Generators, widely recognised as a leading provider of temporary power for hire in the UK, and recently sold to Speedy Hire, a heavy plant hire specialist. When the transaction completed in May, the founders, John and James Pirrie, and John's former wife, Glynnis Pirrie, walked away with £54.5m in cash and £4.5m in Speedy Hire shares between them, for a business that the brothers built literally from scratch.