ABSTRACT
An introduction to Arthur Collins provided Hatry with a way out.
Collins was a past president of the Institute of Municipal Treasurers who advised local authority treasurers seeking to finance their authorities’ capital expenditure. For some time, he had been searching unsuccessfully for a way to reduce the costs of issuing long-term fixed interest stocks. By applying his experience of new share issues, Hatry proposed how this might be done and was prepared to implement his ideas even though this risked antagonising the brokers who had traditionally monopolised this activity.
Arthur Collins was able to sell Hatry’s proposition to local authorities to such effect that together they seized a substantial share of the local authority loan issue market, which understandably annoyed the incumbent brokers.
Hatry set up a company to manage this new business and distributed its shares to the former shareholders of Commercial Bank of London – honouring his promise that they would not lose their capital.
