Eviction in the City

FOR all their supposed mastery at putting together other peoples' businesses, investment bankers seem lousy at merging their own. Some have chosen to make the job short and brutal; others have applied a gentler touch, agonising for years over the task. Both routes have perils. When Germany's Dresdner Bank paid £1 billion ($1.6 billion) in 1995 for Kleinwort Benson, a British merchant bank, it chose a third strategy. The two banks, said Dresdner, would not merge at once. Nor would they remain wholly independent. Kleinwort, mused Jürgen Sarrazin, Dresdner's chairman, would be like a dog on a long lead. But that pet had a nasty bite. On February 28th, Kleinwort announced the resignation of its boss, Simon Robertson.