Peregrine Investments Holdings

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Peregrine (including Peregrine Investments Holdings Limited and Peregrine Infrastructure Investments Limited) was an investment company based in Hong Kong. It was liquidated following the downturn of the Indonesian economy during the Asian financial crisis, and was acquired by BNP Paribas.

1 History
2 Current Operations
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

[edit] The Founding of the Company

Peregrine was founded in 1988 with an initial investment of $38 million by former race car driver Philip Tose and Francis Leung. They had both worked with Citibank in the past and had a large number of connections to Hong Kong's business elite including Li Ka-shing, Gordon Wu and Larry Yung. The company's goal was to profit from the expanding Asian economy by underwriting stocks and bonds to provide capital for the Asian countries, especially the East Asian Tigers. ^[1]

[edit] Taking Risks

The company thrived on taking risks. Commenting on their investing during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Leung said, "These events were just a hiccup. We decided we wanted to take advantage of depressed market conditions at the time." [2]. In 1994, to create an Asian bond market, they hired Andre Lee from Lehman Brothers to head their fixed income department. [3] Lee, a French Canadian-Korean who grew up within the American military presence in Seoul, was described as a "wild man" and "a salesman who could "sell snow to the Eskimos." By 1996, Lee's operations provided one half of Peregrine's profits.[4]. In 1997, Lee stated that infrastructure deals will be "the real phenomena that will create Asian bond markets. [5]. Almost single handedly, Lee created the Asian junk bond market.

[edit] Financial Collapse

In 1998, financial markets were changing. Peregrine invested $265 million dollars in Steady Safe, an Indonesian transportation company. This was half of Peregrine's capital [6] On the surface, the deal looked secure, the only hitch was that the terms stated that repayment would be in Indonesian rupiah. The deal was undersubscribed and Peregrine was left with the remaining bonds. Following the collapse of Steady Safe along with several other losses during the East Asian financial crisis, the company lost all liquidity and had to close its doors in January 1998. [7]

[edit] Current Operations

BNP Paribas Peregrine is now the investment banking arm of BNP Paribas in Asia. It delivers integrated investment banking services covering primary and seconding equity fund raising, underwriting and securities brokerages, corporate finance, financial advisory, mergers and acquisitions.