19 JULY 1997, Page 21

Trojan horses

AS FOR British finance, one line from the announcement tells the story: 'ICI is being advised by Goldman Sachs'. In the days, not far distant, when S.G. Warburg advised more than half the top hundred British companies, ICI shone out from its client list like a fixed star. Bank and client were both of them regarded as national champi- ons. Then ICI put itself in a state of defence against the two jolly noblemen at Hanson and brought Goldman in to help. Goldman's great coup was to find that Hanson's balance-sheet included racehors- es, which ran in one of the noblemen's colours. To Warburgs, these horses have proved to be Trojan.