Sir Ron Quixote of The City Sir Ron Brierley's boots-first entrance into the planned
merger between the London and Frankfurt stock exchanges has won him some
arms-length accolades from the British press.
The Express called him the "doughty" Sir Ron, who gave the
London Stock Exchange a "no holds barred" rocket, raging
against the undervaluation of the LSE.
The paper may have thought that Sir Ron's words were some of the
"most intemperate sent by the chairman of a public company to the
stock exchange" but it said at least the complaint might "flush
out some of those invisible supporters of iX and promote a proper
debate".
But over here, we just saw it as vintage Brierley.
The Express on Sunday quotes an LSE source who describes Sir Ron
as an "asset stripper", while an employee at a US investment
bank (the big investment banks are very keen for the merger) said Sir Ron
had used similar tactics in the past to extract higher prices for deals
where he had held stakes, including Wembley Stadium.
"He's an arbitrageur, so naturally he's going to demand a higher
price," the banker said.
Notably, neither of the sources who criticised Sir Ron were willing to
put their names to their thoughts.
So, by openly saying what he thinks (something that they haven't
traditionally been keen on in financial markets over there), Sir Ron has
become the champion of the fund managers and smaller stockbrokers
See IRG research reports
