Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Keyser Ullman

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Founded
  
1868

Type of business
  
Private

Key people
  
Edward du Cann (Chairman, 1970-1975)

Founders
  
Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling, Ellis Abraham Franklin

Keyser Ullman was a British merchant bank.

History

A. Keyser & Co was an independent merchant bank founded by Samuel Montagu and his partners in 1868.

Naomi Levine states that Keyser was founded by Ellis Abraham Franklin using Montagu's money.

In The Rise of Merchant Banking, Stanley D. Chapman describes Keyser & Co as a "second eleven" for the overcrowded flanks of Montagus and Franklins.

Sir Edward du Cann, a Member of Parliament (MP) and former chairman of the Conservative Party, was chairman of Keyser Ullman from 1970 to 1975. In October 1974, du Cann and the executive of the 1922 Committee met at du Cann's Keyser Ullman offices in Milk Street, where it was decided that the Committee would press Edward Heath to hold a leadership election, which led to Margaret Thatcher becoming party leader. The press called them the "Milk Street Mafia".

A Department of Trade and Industry report into the failure of Keyser Ullman found du Cann to have been "incompetent" while chairman between 1970 and 1975. "In 1973, the bank lent pounds 17m to a 28-year- old entrepreneur, Christopher Selmes, secured on a valueless guarantee. Mr Selmes later fled the country, leaving debts of more than pounds 20m."

Property developer Jack Dellal sold his merchant bank, Dalton Barton to Keyser Ullman for £58m just before the 1973-74 banking crisis that caused Keyser's failure. Dellal was deputy chairman of Keyser and some have argued that he was "prime culprit" in the failure of Keyser Ullman and du Cann's resulting bankruptcy.

References

Keyser Ullman Wikipedia