Daily Diary

The Diary on tour: Barcelona

Posted 14/06/2007 by The Daily Diary

El Diary was in the Catalonian capital this week for sun, sangria and structured finance as 4,000 delegates descended on the catchily-named Annual Global Asset-Backed Securities Conference, which was every bit as fun as it sounds.

Expectations were high as pointy-hatted finance gurus speculated on key industry issues like how drunk the most drunk delegate would be; would panel members outnumber their audience; and would anyone – except your highly-motivated correspondent – make it, bleary-eyed, to the 9.15am sessions? (Yup, apparently Spain has a nine in the morning as well now.)

The hottest topic of all, however, was which firm had the most expensive giveaway at the marketing stands. Lovells underlined its cost-conscious credentials by giving away cow-shaped piggy banks, while well-polished City rival Ashurst countered with shoe-shining kits. Linklaters showed its ability to multi-task seamlessly by dishing out highlighter pens that doubled as post-it dispensers.

Norton Rose upped the stakes with travel editions of Connect Four (its partners move around a lot – usually to other firms) while Simmons & Simmons remembered the good times with branded USB memory-sticks.

However, first prize went to Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, which handed out a strictly limited supply of branded sports-watches resembling (fake) Rolexes. The Diary has three of them.

But while law firms are raking in record amounts of cash, they could not compete with the banks, with Deutsche handing out iPod speakers and Credit Suisse flashing James Bond-style silver pens with built-in lasers.