Case Study One: Keyser Ullmann

Abstract

Among the banking companies caught up in the upheaval, Keyser Ullmann attracted a large share of public attention, and not without reason. It embarked on a remarkable lending spree just before the crisis and was later forced to draw substantially on the Lifeboat’s support loans. It had also to make such large provisions for losses on its loans that it incurred very heavy losses and saw its shareholders’ funds reduced at one stage to less than a third of their previous level. How did it all happen?

At that time [1973] we had a lot of money and the City were telling me “lend it out, lend it out”.

Mr Jack Dellal, former deputy chairman of Keyser Ullmann Holdings¹