The common refrain among expat bankers and brokers in Tokyo is a long moan about the lacklustre state of Japan’s markets. But if you were to wander into the palatial function rooms of the gleaming Grand Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo’s entertainment district of Roppongi any time this week, you could be forgiven for thinking you’re back in the headiest of Tokyo’s “bubble days” of the late 1980s – courtesy of CLSA.
CLSA is certainly not scrimping on its Fifth Japan Forum, a five-day gala gabfest which kicked off Monday with an all-star cast to edify and entertain more than 1,400 institutional investors, CFOs and CEOs.
Among the 30-plus speakers being wheeled out for the assembled multitudes are Bob Geldof; Paul Krugman – New York Times columnist and Princeton professor; Nassim Nicholas Taleb – author of the best-selling “The Black Swan” and professor at London Business School; Ian Ayres – author of “Super Crunches” and Yale professor; some prominent Japanese politicians and personalities; and a range of specialists including CLSA’s big wheels and top analysts.
In between sessions, delegates are being feted and fed with lavish meals at top restaurants, tours to Tsukiji fish markets and other Tokyo spots, company visits and traditional Japanese culture activities such as tea ceremonies, and sake and sushi classes.
For party animals, however, the highlight is undoubtedly the Wednesday night concert and party, where Fergie of the Black-Eyed Peas will entertain CLSA’s guests at the chic Tokyo Forum venue in Tokyo’s Yurakucho district, alongside rap dancers, artists and acrobats.
In typical form, however, CLSA has severely restricted media access at the conference, although a spokesman said it is being “far more open” than ever before by inviting media to attend special briefings with its own analysts and permitting hacks into the four keynote speeches through the week. Oh, and select hacks are being invited to the Wednesday night bash.
Given CLSA’s growing market share in Japan’s broking and investment industries since setting up shop there in 2003 (it won’t give hard figures but boasts a 100 per cent increase from 2005 to 2007 in volume of securities traded in Japan and a 23 per cent rise in market share of the brokerage business in Japan), CLSA clearly feels this kind of “pamper and preen” strategy pays off.
And others concur, judging by another jolly bash on the other side of the world this week. In this case it’s private equity, which will see Carlyle Group founder David Rubenstein and TPG’s David Bonderman join a gathering of about 1,500 executives from the leveraged buyout industry in Germany this week, reports Bloomberg – even as funding for takeovers vanishes and returns deteriorate.
At their Super Return conference last year, executives toasted an unprecedented $713bn of acquisitions with a reception at the Frankfurt Zoo, where they were entertained by a dance troupe and challenged to find the glass of champagne containing a real diamond, according to Bloomberg.
“That was four months before the US subprime mortgage market started to collapse, leaving banks with a backlog of about $230bn in buyout loans and reducing their appetite to fund any new takeovers. Two preferred routes to generate quick returns, selling assets to other buyout firms or taking dividends from investments, also withered in the credit drought.”
We’re not sure if there will be any diamonds in the champagne flutes this year, but we can be certain that the philosophy of “party in the face of adversity” is alive and well.