The trip began with a soggy trip to Frankfurt, to view that quiet and reclusive beast: the German Schuldschein.
A group of eager market participants to the round table event were held in suspense before they could approach the reclusive creature, because Richard Waddington arrived (very apologetically) a few minutes late.
Although, to be fair, Waddington had no excuse given that Commerzbank’s offices were the closest to the venue. And he had forgotten his binoculars.
The intrepid voyeurs then stalked through the wilderness of the German private placement market and got a good view of the animal in her natural environment.
On arriving in sunnier climes in Cape Town, the Ranger was summoned to an eye-wateringly early breakfast meeting chaired by one of Africa’s Big Five: Standard Bank’s Megan McDonald, or ‘Queen Megan’ as she is known by her colleagues. Not for any airs and graces on her behalf, but rather her role as an African DCM and loans heavyweight.
The capital markets conference was like a watering hole, with hordes of loan market aficionados coming to drink (and think). Meanwhile, central bank governors and bankers jostled for pride of place on their panel discussions.
NedBank’s Bruce Stewart was seemingly omnipresent at every roundtable and panel discussion at once.
The Ranger also went in search of whales and penguins, but the animals must have got wind of the Ranger’s skiving because there was a no show from the whales and the penguins were decidedly lacklustre.