dottocomu

Behind the scenes of the LTCB rebirth

Excellent FT article on Ripplewood's buyout of the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, which begins with three of the Americans' attempt at a bit of informal meet-and-greet in the staff cafeteria. Excerpt:

Jordan looked for somewhere to sit down. He could tell that some form of hierarchy was at work in the room, but it ran against his instincts. He had spent his whole life fighting segregation. "I am a free man! I am a man of the people!" he liked to declare. So he chose the first seat that grabbed his egalitarian fancy - right in the middle of the youngest and most junior office ladies - and with a big grin tried to strike up a conversation with the tiny women around him, using his best American "meet and greet" skills.

The women froze in shock: they would have been scarcely less startled had Godzilla arrived for lunch. Eventually the Americans gave up. But as they quietly ate their lunch, watched by a sea of silent eyes, they discreetly peeped around them and tried to guess what the Japanese were thinking. The most bizarre experiment involving Wall Street and Japan had just got under way.

Via Gen Kanai