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.
Culture The company was characterised as "arrogant", and 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". In 1994, to create an Asian bond market, they hired
Andre Lee from
Lehman Brothers to head their fixed income department. 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.
Financial Collapse In 1998, financial markets were changing. Peregrine underwrote the bond issue by Steady Safe, an Indonesian taxi company of US$265 million, half of Peregrine's capital On the surface, the deal looked secure, although repayment would be in
Indonesian rupiah. The deal was undersubscribed, and Peregrine was left with the remaining bonds as the underwriter. Following the collapse of Steady Safe along with several other losses during the Asian financial crisis, the company lost all liquidity and after unsuccessful negotiations with would-be suitors and white knights, and closed in January 1998. The Greater China team stumbled into the arms of
BNP Paribas, while a substantial portion of the Asia team (ex-China) was hired by
Banco Santander. ==Current operations==