The last Victorian bastion besieged

Matthew Lynn says London’s last 19th-century merchant bank, Close Brothers, is under threat of takeover by one of the modern breed of aggressive City traders, Andy Stewart

Anyone approaching the headquarters of Close Brothers just off Broadgate in the heart of the City may be reminded of the words that open the Asterix books, about how one small village of indomitable Gauls held out against the invading Romans. In the last two decades, almost all the great names of what was once the Square Mile — the Flemings, the Kleinworts, the Schroders — have either been erased from the record books or reduced to nothing more than a couple of oil paintings and a brass plate inside a giant American, German or Swiss investment bank. Except, that is, for one small village of indomitable Brits: Close Brothers.

And now it too is under threat. Last month the City dealmaker Andy Stewart tabled a £1.2 billion offer for Close Brothers. His plan is to fold it into his much smaller Cenkos Securities. The offer has been rejected but the future of Close Brothers hangs in the balance. If it goes under, it will be the last of London’s Victorian merchant banks to disappear, and it will take a slice of City history with it.

Not that such a sentiment is likely to trouble the bidder, or many of the shareholders. The fight promises to be a tough one, pitting one of the City’s most articulate and aggressive personalities against one of its oldest institutions. ‘It isn’t fuddy-duddy at all, but it is the last of a dying breed,’ said one observer of Close. Indeed so. The outcome of this battle will tell us whether the financial markets still have any time for tradition.

In any history of the City, William Brooks Close would not merit more than a footnote — indeed, in David Kynaston’s four-volume masterwork he’s not mentioned at all.