If I'm fired, I'll play in a band

WERBER Seifert, the millionaire boss of the Deutsche Borse, has had better Christmases. Instead of celebrating a swift takeover of the London Stock Exchange, he was nursing a king-size blow to his immediate ambitions and reputation.

He had hoped to be popping champagne corks around the Christmas tree at his new luxury apartment in Frankfurt's answer to Docklands. But the Swiss-born jazz player was left puzzling out how to get back in the game.

It should all have been so very different. Three weeks ago, Seifert, 55, rolled into London with a 'masterplan' to take over the LSE after his failure to do so four years back.

This time, a knockout £1.35bn bid was meant to be gratefully received by the LSE, headed by Clara Furse. But Furse rebuffed Seifert's initial approach and his offer of a top job in the combined operation. Even worse was to follow. Suddenly the focus was on Seifert's personal life.

In London, fingers were pointing at the serious Frankfurt financier and nothing could have been less welcome to a man who is at pains to keep his private life out of the spotlight. Tough German privacy laws protect him at home, but the British newshounds were entirely different.

Into the public domain came his two marriages, suggestions of an impending divorce and lurid allegations about an affair with a British publisher.

To make matters worse, it was alleged that Seifert had taken a desk in the London offices of Euromoney, a financial trade magazine, to be near his then girlfriend, publisher Lisa Traeger, and had left two briefcases of confidential papers in her office.

Now for first time, Seifert has spoken of the 'hell' he suffered since the allegations became public.

He told Financial Mail: 'I must say it was so very unprofessional. It was disgusting as hell.

'The allegations are not true. For a start, I only have one briefcase. Do you think I am crazy? Is it likely I would do such a mad thing at such a time? I am so embarrassed. All these allegations are untrue. I am not seeking a divorce.'

Seifert, who earned £1.6m last year, married Carola in 1984. They separated 11 years later but did not divorce until 2001. He married his secretary, Barbra Stasch, a year later.

Time after time during the interview, Seifert returned to the shame of seeing his private life paraded in public.

'I am not normally a media person,' he said. 'I am keen to have a private life, but what happened to me is so wrong. It is embarrassing. I am just a normal human being - I don't deserve all this publicity.'

It is hard to imagine how Seifert has had time to conduct a marriage, an affair, play the organ in two jazz orchestras, run the Deutsche Borse and lead a £1.3bn takeover.

Adding to the tribulations of an assault on the LSE and sparring with his bitter enemy Euronext - the pan-European exchange headed by his arch-rival Jean-Francois Theodore, that is expected to table a rival bid - he faces a revolt in his own backyard.

Seifert recently commented that it would be a 'matter for negotiation' whether London or Frankfurt would be the main base for the new exchange.

This caused an outcry among leading politicians in Germany, who fear 1,400 jobs could be lost.

Roland Koch, the state minister for Hesse, said: 'It is an exceptional signal of the strength of the Frankfurt Borse that it can mount a takeover bid, so naturally we expect the headquarters of the new business to be in Frankfurt.'

Any hint of opposition back home is dismissed by Seifert. 'This is all rubbish,' he said. 'There is no pressure in Frankfurt. This is all exaggeration by some sections of the media in London.' It is hard not to get the impression that Seifert is becoming a little obsessed with the British Press.

Failure to win the LSE would at least have one consolation - British journalists would be off his back. And it would also offer him the possibility of fulfilling another major ambition - to take to the road with a bunch of young musicians.

'You should not read anything into this,' he said. 'But if I am fired, my dream would be to sign up a couple of young musicians, hire a bus and hit the road.' This is one dream at least that Euronext's Theodore hopes will come true for Seifert.