Carr joins Asian casualty list

ANOTHER piece of the City of London's once all-powerful stockbroking empire in the East crumbled this week when Indosuez WI Carr shut the doors on its research business. Its research of Asian equities started in 1969 when City brokers WI Carr first joined the Far East Stock Exchange in Hong Kong.

Better known as WICO, the group was the first foreign brokerage to venture into the region and prospered as the so-called Asian economic miracle began to transform the area from one of palm trees and paddy fields to one of skyscrapers and hi-tech factories.

As institutions in the US and Britain woke up to the potential of Asia's emerging economies, WI Carr expanded to 17 offices around the region, before being gobbled up by Indosuez in 1986. Before then, it had been joined by two other British-based brokers, Hoare Govett and Vickers da Costa and Jardine Fleming, a joint venture between the Jardine Matheson trading conglomerate and the London-based Robert Fleming financial house. None could retain independence as capital became king in the broking world, and the US and European giants invaded Asia.

The most tragic tale surrounded Vickers Da Costa, which, having merged with brokers Scrimgeour to form Scrimgeour Vickers and built itself into a top Asian house, was absorbed by Citicorp. In the following clash of cultures, the British brokers paid the price.

Old Asian hands still shake their heads in sorrow at the fate of Scrimgeour, but the Hoare Govett name also disappeared into the ABN Amro complex, while Jardine Fleming is now part of the Chase group.

The slump in turnover in Asian markets following the 1997 financial crisis steepened with the bursting of the technology bubble, while the 11 September terrorist attacks on the US brought the end for WI Carr's once-top team of research talent. They claimed to know the markets, and that is mainly what is going to happen in the group's Asian offices from on as Indosuez concentrates on programme trading and index tracking, and 350 of its 500 staff now face the future without jobs.