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Barings v. Fowler


 Some  North Carolina litigation provides today's food for thought.  

There are many contested facts about the case, but if there is any glimmering of truth in the complaint Barings made, then Corinthia, and those behind it, are acting like mobsters amidst the world of high finance, specifically the subdivision of that world known as private credit. 

Barings, a storied bank headquartered in London, runs a substantial private credit operation out of North Carolina. Recently, and apparently at the instigation of another financial giant, Japan's Nomura, an Australian fellow has created this new entity (Corinthia -- like the adjective for leather but without the "n" at the end) and has used it to go on a hiring spree.

The Australian, Paul Weightman, hired a lot of talent and then called/emailed the bosses of these talented folk to demand that they sell him the "platform," i.e. proprietary information and facilities used to extend and manage loans.

Tony Soprano might have said upfront, "It's a nice private credit operation you've got there. It would be a shame if anything were to happen to it." Then he would have demanded the operation be sold to him at a below market price. Weightman followed a somewhat different path.  "Ooooh, something bad happened to your nice private credit operation. Its top talent disappeared. Now I'm afraid you're gonna have to hand it over to me. Yeah, and I'll cut you a little something something of a check, 'cause I'm a standup guy. Sorta like Jersey in the outback." 

For no good reason it is not Corinthia itself, but Fowler, the senior of the defectors from Barings, who became the first named defendant in the lawsuit Barings brought and, so, half of the name that I've used as a title above.  

I just put this here as a marker, in the event I want to build upon it later. "What exactly IS 'private credit,' you ask?" The phrase is not as commonly used as, say, "private equity," so I understand the curiosity I have hypothetically imputed to you. We'll talk later.

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