Robert Fleming & Co. - Flemings at The End of Its Days

Flemings At The End of Its Days

In 1997, Robert Fleming Holdings had operations in 44 countries in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Americas and Africa. Its net assets as for the 1997 fiscal year were £841 million and its profit before tax for the year was £136.1 million. Its global asset management business managed £63 billion on behalf of institutional and private investors around the world. These results included Jardine Fleming, which in its own right had operations in fifteen countries in the Asia-Pacific region, seats on twenty stock exchanges and some US$19.7 billion in funds under management. Jardine Fleming’s profit before tax for the year was US$41.4 million. The firm’s significant transactions included the privatization of state-owned Pakistan Telecommunication Co. Ltd. in 1994.

Through its history, the firm wore its Scottishness on its sleeve. In addition to being controlled by the Scottish Fleming family, there were other signs of its Scots heritage. A bagpipe player regularly greeted visitors at its London headquarters until 2000. In the 1990s, its main non-Fleming family backers were Scottish institutions such as Baillie Gifford and Stewart Ivory. The firm also owned the most extensive private collection of Scottish art in existence, removed to an art foundation, The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, created to protect the art works and prevent any buyers of the failing bank from selling off the collection.