Tom, Kit and Hong Kong
TOM FROST is a good egg and a good banker who could usefully compare notes with Sir Kit McMahon. Today Mr Frost has the pack baying for him. He is chief execu- tive of the National Westminster, his bank has come up with a run of bad figures, and his chairman, like some misguided retriev- er, has dug up a smelly old bone and dumped it in his lap. It is a year since Sir Kit, chairman and chief executive of the Midland, made an early exit from his job. The figures were bad, and his strategy was, in his critics' eyes, discredited. Today the figures are better — partly because Sir Kit took an axe to costs — and the improve- ment has put his strategy back into credit. His plan, when he came to the Midland, was to strengthen its capital by selling assets, by tapping the stock market, and by bringing in the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank as a shareholder which might, after three years, join forces. Everything worked except the long engagement — and since it was understood that, in a merged group, Willie Purves of the Hongkong would become chief executive, Sir Kit was debarred from finding one of his own. Now the engagement is on again, the Bank of England blesses the match, all is agreed bar the terms. The difference is that Mr Purves, that formidable Scot, can expect to be the merged group's chairman. Sir Kit is right but retired. I wish Tom Frost better luck.
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