Tullett Prebon and GFI hold £1.6bn merger talks as they prepare to challenge Icap

August 1, 2008 - Miles Costello
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article4437665.ece
Tullett Prebon and GFI Group are in detailed takeover talks that could lead to the creation of one of the world’s most powerful interdealer brokers, threatening to eclipse the king of City bond players, Michael Spencer’s Icap.
It is understood that the two listed companies would do a deal based on shares, rather than a big exchange of cash, with Tullett paying a premium. It is believed that Tullett, led by Terry Smith, its chief executive, would have the upper hand in the combination.
Shares in GFI, listed in New York, rose as much as 19 per cent yesterday after a report that the two brokers were days away from an agreement. Tullett, listed in London, rose more than 3 per cent and then confirmed that negotiations were under way.
It is understood that the two brokers, which have been in on-off talks for years, are progressing towards an agreement, but a concrete proposal is more likely to be weeks, rather than days, in the making.
An interdealer broker stands between institutions on deals including bonds, derivatives and energy trades. Companies such as Tullett, GFI and Icap have ridden a wave of volatility in markets over the past year as the credit crisis has prompted some dealers to chase trading opportunities and others to seek safer investments.
However, Icap is clearly the dominant player in the market, leaving some dealers to argue that a second major force is required.
A combined Tullett Prebon/GFI would be the largest interdealer broker, measured by staff numbers, and the second-largest in terms of revenues and posttax profits.
A combination of the two companies would create a broking power-house worth at least £1.6 billion.
Tullett Prebon specialises in trading interest-rate derivatives, foreign exchange and conventional financial products such as bonds.
GFI is better known as a player in more modern and esoteric markets, such as gas and other energy trading products.
It is not yet clear what the board structure of a combined group would be if the negotiations succeed. Mr Smith, a former UBS analyst who is highly respected in the City and has a reputation as a deal-driver, could become either chief executive or chairman. Mickey Gooch, GFI’s chief executive, is also a contender for the top job.
Under Mr Smith, Tullett has diversified rapidly since being demerged from Collins Stewart last year. About 80 per cent of its business is shared equally between London and New York, with the remainder in Asia and emerging markets. Both GFI and Tullett are keen to diversify further.
Mr Smith and Mr Spencer, whose Icap is the world’s biggest interdealer broker, have been regular sparring partners in the testosterone-fuelled world of City dealing. Icap has about 30 per cent of the market.
The two men have had a number of run-ins in the past over the poaching of staff in an industry in which lurid tales of strip joints and late-night drinking sessions with clients abound.

The Week and the Weekend

Met up with some lawyers.

Explored ClearWater Bay for 2 mins

I didnt manage to go back to HK Dog Rescue centre because i had no discipline to say No to tea buffet with Vic's family. ahhhhhhh. I feel guilty.

Watched The Black Knight - realised how selfish i had become. haha.

Bumped in to Charmaine

Ahead.
Call brother to chk all okay
Call Mom to chat
Look for apartment
Try to meet more clients
Apply for leave

Yoga

What is Yoga? http://www.yoga.net.au/what_is_yoga

Yoga, in general, is a spiritual practice or discipline that helps the individual unify his/her body, mind, and heart.

Yoga is a direct experience of the vast interrelatedness of all life and of all things. You will feel at peace at the end of a yoga class because there is a natural realignment of your body which leads to a natural realignment of your perception of life and of who you are.

If you stay with yoga long enough, you may discover a "spiritual awakening" (for lack of a better phrase.) You will find out that who you are, is not just your body, and not just the conversations in your mind.

Through steady practice, you will manifest less self-importance, less material attachment, more capacity for joy, less judgmentalness, and more tolerance toward others.

Yoga is about transformation, not hamstrings, but along the way we have to take care of them. This is not dogma, but a direct experience. Yoga will open your eyes to things you have not experienced before. It will take you beyond the mundane survival level and into a whole new appreciation of life.

Genuine yoga will change your life, your habits, your body, your health, your mind, your breathing patterns, your attitudes, your outlook. Yoga is about learning from direct experience. You will develop wisdom of how your body works most efficiently. You will learn how your conscious and unconsious mind can either support or harm you, and then later, a deeper wisodm naturally gets revealed. The benefits of Yoga will come to those who practice.

There is no competition in Yoga, everyone is different.

Today I Grew up A Little

28th Jul 08

Richard said I had the talent and ability to do either and I would succeed. Richard says 51% is 100%.

Noel said I was two-faced and 50-50 and that sucks. I had to go one way or another. He said I was a conservative who wanted to try out new stuff. Very true. If I wanted to do sales, I would have to go all out. Noel is an excel teacher, experienced in the ways of the world. He is everyone's best friend it seems. He knows many people, and can teach & help me. He taught me something very important today, "If you don't try, you would never know... keng meh jie, yao meh hou geng?" I respect him for this life lesson over drinks. Should I follow him, and let him teach me things? Of course, nothing comes for free. So, get creative!


In China market, it is important to read people, and to find out what they are like, what they like to do and how they spend their time. Basically, make them happy. My goal is to sell. It is very simple and straightforward. Heck what everyone says and just deliever the numbers. Another important lesson is to make meself useful to my client. Why will client want to use my product? How will the client benefit from me? How do I make use of that benefit to negotiate terms favourable to me?

HK Dog Rescue Centre

I spent two hours walking dogs that were abandoned and rescued by its founder, Sally Andersen. This organisation rehomes dogs that were due to be destroyed from AFCD kennels. HKDR is entirely self-financed and run by volunteers. My task for now would be to clean, feed and walk the dogs, which I am very happy to do, given that I miss dogs so much.

Today, i walked a shy and thin Golden Retriever called Anna, a leader of the pack fierce Pit Terrier-mixed Mongrel, an energetic adorable brown polka dotted puppy. It was very nice meeting people at the Dog Shelter: Charly, Letia, Leng1, Leng 2 and a really cute guy there, whose name I do not know yet.

Very happy. Of course, I spent Sat morn at the gym, today's morning was spent with marketing and household chores. I cooked dinner today as well. The days ahead looks interesting:
- Trip up to Shenzhen, hone my pitching skills again
- Tell Mgmt about my Decision
- Bake my dulce de leche
- Facial mid-week
- Gymming at least three times a week (1,3,5) hopefully
- Get HK Squash Centre membership up and in a team, and prepare for training!
- SMU Invitation on 31st Jul @ Conrad HK, Pacific Place
- Sze Min's going to be in town, so we should be going out by Friday or Sat
________________________________
- Keep reading about Sales, about Derivatives
- Plan August Beijing Trip!
- Post my letter to Alf
- Mom's Birthday on 25th Aug
- Book my Sept trip back to Sg?
- Paul returns on 1st Aug frm Taiwan
- Sg's National Day on 9th Aug

Time for bed now! I am so glad I am the stronger for it all.

The decision

It has been one year and one month in this company, and almost time to make a decision between Sales & Account Management:

I am a friendly people person, but i am not comfortable to sell yet. That I have to try all ways and means to make people buy my product. Ie: Pushing, seeing/manipulating the numbers, continual talking, entertaining.
I am a sensitive person, and am not very thick skinned. Meaning, i dont handle rejections. I should use my sensitivity to size up a client needs, and learn how to make deals.
I can maintain relationships, and upsell when necessary, but closing a deal is quite a different animal. I have to be very agressive, which is in part, not my nature as I am not motivated yet. I guess the end game for me is to never never give up. That is my goal and my motivating factor now. To be able to sell. Why, it is just to prove to myself and others that I can do it. I won't let anyone tell me I can't do it. Currently, I have two people who believe in me, my mom and Alvin. That alone will take me the distance.
I like challenges, and my AM may provide a different set of challenges to do with managing clients and their expectations, hopefully in my current pet market: China

Meanwhile, Alvin advises that Sales can be learnt, so long I have someone to guide me/for me to learn from. And of course Mom tells me to read up on Sales Techniques. Given that I have the option to do AM, I should take my time, and take up Sales when i am comfortable and have built up my confidence. It is one thing to sell, it is another to sell in a new environment. So one step at a time.

As a backup, what can I do after AM?
http://www.wetfeet.com/Careers-and-Industries/Careers/Account-Management.aspx
I can work in a field that uses my wide network of clients in N.Asia
I can handle relationship management, and understand the sales process
I will have deep product knowledge in FX Options and Risk Mgmt
Depending on how things change, I may have the opp to do Sales and other types of Sales later. Ie: Sales and trading, sales and research, etc...

I guess for now, I have to be happy, comfortable. Some capabilities are god-given, and for me, i am blessed to be well-liked and hardworking. The rest that I haven't discovered yet, I will push my limits till I get there.

To Sell or Not to sell

Super Sellers By Donald J. Moine
As Pat Knowles, one of the top oil and gas tax-shelter sales experts in the nation, told me, "Every day, my prospects and customers beat me and scratch me and kick me and claw me, but I persist, and I help them solve their tax problems. And I walk away with big commissions."

Top salespeople, McMurray found:
Use sheer persistence: The salesman is "stronger in character than his prospect."
Bill Kirk, now sales manager for Control Data, told me how he closed a sale for more than $1 million by telling a prospect, "I'll stay here all night to answer your questions and I won't leave until I have the order." He got the order.

Interrogate prospects at length about their needs and then adapt your presentations "so the prospect cannot rationalize a refusal to purchase."

Have a high level of energy, abounding self-confidence, a chronic hunger for money, a well-established habit of industry and "a state of mind which regards each objection, resistance or obstacle as a challenge."

Types of Sales Techniques
Closing sales call for intense, do-it-now selling, like that practiced by door-to-door salespeople. Since the seller usually has only one contact with the prospect, the likelihood of failure is high.
Closing superstars are self-starters whose overwhelming self-confidence helps them turn brief encounters into lucrative sales. To them, selling is a game, one they expect to win. Achievement-oriented and status conscious, they have tight control over their feelings; they use emotions as tools to influence customers, but do not rely on customers for emotional satisfaction.

Consultive sales usually involve expensive items, high technology or intangible, "intelligent" services such as law, consulting and advertising. Skill at interpersonal contact, patience and aggressiveness are the key ingredients for success. The salesperson emphasizes helping their customers with problems.
Independent and self-sufficient, like the closers, but they see themselves as highly skilled technicians rather than flashy, hard-driving extroverts. Although they are skilled socially and enjoy being with people, they have an equally strong need for solitude. When they do socialize, it is with intimate friends, who are usually not involved with selling in any form.

Relationship sales depend chiefly on building long-term relationships with customers. The best of these salespeople are hard-driving, conservative individuals who combine patience and perseverance in a sales technique that can best be characterized as low-pressure or hidden-pressure. They value customer loyalty and return it by making sure that their customers get good service at good prices. They prefer protected territories to open ones and are poor at bringing in new customers if it means taking them away directly from another salesperson.

Display sales require little personal involvement, seldom lead to personal rejection and offer rewards that do not depend directly on making sales. Retail clerks, for example, are usually paid a straight salary. The best display salespeople know how to approach different types of people in a friendly, low-key manner. They have a high energy level but lack the other salespeople's drive to move up the career ladder; their major goals and pleasures revolve around home and family. The stimulation they get from dealing with people is a prime motivator, although they also enjoy the challenge of "crossover selling," convincing customers to buy items or products they weren't thinking of when they walked in.

Ben Feldman, the most successful life insurance salesman in the world was asked, "What is the best shortcut you've discovered for getting to the top?" "Shortcut?" Feldman repeated. "I've never been able to discover any shortcut around hard work." Jim Sweeney, another top salesman, preached the same sermon. "Many people mistake and miss opportunity because it often goes around wearing overalls and disguised as work."

THE FIRE WITHIN
Profiles we've done on several thousand top producers point to seven motives that drive them:
Need for status: They enjoy power and authority, and are strongly aware of image and reputation.

Need for control: Successful sellers like people, enjoy being with them and delight in influencing them. But they seldom care deeply whether others like them, a trait which enables them to use emotion without falling prey to it.

Need for respect: They want to be seen as experts on what is right, best or appropriate. They regard themselves as well intentioned people, willing to help and advise others.

Need for routine: Contrary to the stereotype that top salespeople are impulsive and somewhat undisciplined, most like routine and hate having it interrupted. They prefer positive actions to positive thoughts

Need for accomplishment: Material comforts--a nice house, expensive clothing, a fancy car--are only the beginning. Money starts as a prime motivator, but the top salespeople earn so much that, as Ben Feldman says, "Money loses its ability to inspire you." The superstars constantly create new challenges, go after the "impossible sales," to maintain their enthusiasm.

Need for stimulation: Top producers are normally calm, relaxed people who thrive on challenge. They have more physical energy than most of us and welcome outside stimulation as a way to channel their energy in satisfying ways.

Need for honesty: The best salespeople have such a strong need to believe in the product that they will switch jobs if the company's reputation falls or they have serious doubts about a new product line.

Are Sales Winners Born Or Made
January 29th, 2007 by Steve Clark
Five qualities that great salespeople have in common.

Empathy
According to Herb Greenberg, “Empathy is the ability to sense the reactions of other people. It is the ability to pick up the subtle clues and cues provided by others in order to accurately assess what they are thinking and feeling. The salesperson that is able to sift through and find the true meaning of what is being communicated is able to more accurately uncover problems and present customized solutions.

Ego Drive
Ego drive is an emotional need to gain self-acceptance. Persuading others to our point of view fulfills that need. Top salespeople get their “fix” or “high” when they successfully persuade a prospect. Salespeople with high Ego Drive are motivated and driven to achieve tangible results from their sales efforts. They will work long and hard to close sales and produce positive results.

Service Need
Salespeople who rate high in service need have a psychological need to serve and please others. Because of their need to be liked they develop relationships easily and are able to create trust quickly. This need makes them a natural fit for sales positions that require them to service and maintain ongoing relationships with buyers that they sell.

Self-Image
This individual possesses the ability to accept rejection and failure as part of life without internalizing or without emotional damage. Salespeople with a strong self-image, however, are emotionally resilient. Rather than being crushed by failure, they are motivated by it. They can’t wait for the next opportunity.

Utilitarian Attitude
A person with a high utilitarian attitude is likely to have a great need to surpass others in wealth. He or she understands that wealth brings security for the salesperson, but also for present and future family.

Great Salespeople Aren't Born -- They Work At It
How to survive -- and thrive -- in today's competitive business climate.
By Anne Fisher, FORTUNE senior writer June 1, 2005: 3:20 PM EST

Q: What do you mean by 'create value'?
A: People buy something because it solves a particular problem. So, to succeed, you need to be adept at figuring out what each customer's problem is and how you can help solve it. Sometimes, to be truly effective, you have to enlist the support of other people in your own company as well. For example, you might arrange for your IT department to design a way for the customer to order and inventory your product more easily. Or your marketing people might pitch in and help a customer sell its product or service. Sometimes you can identify a way to build more unique customization into your product or service so that it fills a customer's exact need. But to arrive at anything like that, you have to be an excellent listener. Mediocre salespeople talk most of the time, during a sales call. Great ones listen most of the time.

Q: What else do great salespeople do?A: They plan each sales call meticulously rather than "winging it." They also conclude each meeting with suggestions for moving the process along, rather than using high-pressure tactics to close the deal. Incidentally, lots of people think that great salespeople are "born, not made," that is, that you have to have a certain kind of personality or you're out of luck. But all the behaviors of successful salespeople can be learned. In fact, anyone thinking of going into sales should take a couple of classes, partly just to see if they like it.