preview

analyst's dilemma

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document

Harvard Business School

9-394-056
October 8, 1993

The Analyst’s Dilemma (A)
During the spring of 1989, I faced an ethical dilemma which forced me to choose between my moral duty to respect my best friend’s right to confidentiality and my obligation to my employer. I was working in investment banking at the time at Bullard & Bartell (B&B).
The loyalty and commitment that investment bankers, particularly analysts, feel toward their employers is difficult for many to understand. At B&B, a medium-sized firm with about 150 investment bankers in New York, we understood that our loyalty to our career and to our employer was, with few exceptions, our first priority. There exists almost a cult mentality in these organizations, and …show more content…

She asked me to promise that I would keep what she was about to tell me in confidence; I agreed, assuming that it must be a personal problem. She told me that she had lost her job that day because
Universal was dissolving its capital finance group. My first concern was for Lori and the fact that she would be unemployed within a couple of weeks. We spent a great deal of time discussing her options in a difficult economic environment; many people in the financial community were losing their jobs and having a very difficult time finding new opportunities. Later, I asked about Suntech, and we discussed the potentially disastrous ramifications that Universal’s decision would have upon this deal. We both knew that a last-minute pull-out by one of the major players in a leveraged buyout could put a deal in serious jeopardy. Little problems can prevent a deal from happening on
Wall Street, and this was a big problem.
In dissolving its capital finance group, Universal would be selling off its entire loan portfolio to other banks. Because the Suntech deal had not been completed, however, Universal was going to back out of the Suntech loan agreement altogether, and B&B would have to find a new agent bank.
Universal’s sudden withdrawal left B&B in an extremely precarious position. Although the tender offer had already been made, the deal would not be

Get Access
Related
Get Access