With less than a month to go to GlobalCapital’s 12 Syndicated Loan & Leveraged Finance industry dinner (Wednesday February 11 if you’re interested), it was natural that Loan Ranger should find himself talking to a number of senior bankers about the evening – and particularly the awards that will be given out for loan market excellence.
What was more surprising is that one of them harboured fond memories of the event’s entertainment two years ago.
“It was like watching a Sophoclean tragedy unfold,” said the banker, who admits to a background in the classics. “You had this rising sense of inevitability about it, as if you were in that moment of the play that Aristotle called the peripeteia.”
In Aristotle’s terminology, the peripeteia is the turning point of a Greek tragedy where the protagonist suffers a sudden reversal of fortune.
“You know,” said the banker, “the bit where Oedipus kills his dad on the road and then gets it on with his own mum.”
Not everyone who attended that night will have cherished such an awakening, but there is no doubt that Reginald D Hunter’s repartee occasioned a rich tapestry of drama and even social tragedy – particularly for those bankers who were unfortunate enough to be seated nearest the stage. Yet our loans official described it as one of most hilarious of his life.
“He [Hunter] started off by saying that he was going to challenge us and he certainly kept true to his word. It all started to go wrong when he asked one banker at the front whether he had licked his own arsehole that morning. To my mind that was a perfectly appropriate question to start the conversation.”
Loan Ranger said he would remember that for when he next moderates a conference panel discussion.
“Quite,” said the official. “The problem is that we bankers often take ourselves far too seriously. We’re not quite as vilified by society as we were a few years ago so we should all lighten up a bit and enjoy moments like this. The biggest problem is how does GlobalCapital ever expect to top that one?”
Loan Ranger suggested Russell Brand might be the obvious choice.
“You know what, that would be brilliant,” said the official. “That’s a night I’d definitely like to be present for.”
