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The closure of the corporate finance division of Close Brothers, announced yesterday, will cause barely a ripple on the surface of the City - but it is nevertheless a story for our time.
Twenty-five years ago the forerunner of the business was the corporate finance department of Hill Samuel, and as such was one of the leaders in the mid-cap market. The Hill Samuel name vanished when it was taken over in 1987 by TSB - the newly privatised trustee savings bank which had money burning a hole in its pocket.
Unfortunately it proved rather good at burning, so its money did not last long and it was in turn taken over by Lloyds.
That briefly provided a home for the corporate finance team but it did not really fit so again the business was sold, this time to Close Brothers. There it flourished for many years, although it does now appear to have come to the end of the road.
However, what the story underlines is the ability of the City to regenerate itself. The name on the door and the shareholder register may change but if the personnel stick together so does the core of the business.
Much has been written about closures and lay-offs, and there will no doubt be job losses to come. But while, for example, Dresdner Kleinwort sinks slowly in Gresham Street, rival firms such as Investec and Evolution move in and scoop up much of the talent. Again the business name may change but the skill and the knowledge live on in the minds of the employees and travel with them when they move.
The great plus of a recession - and one which does not get mentioned often enough - is that it becomes possible to recruit good people. In boom times, people are hard to shift from one employer to another without paying extortionate sums of money. In bad times everybody becomes much more reasonable - and in some cases even grateful.
The successful firms are those who can look beyond the need to cut costs, to see the opportunity they have to invest for the future. When business begins to pick up again those who have used this time to upgrade the quality of their people will be the ones to benefit.
