Hanson: A Biography

Alex Brummer, Roger Cowe

За особеностите на екземпляра

Състояние:: Много добро
Забележка:: Почти отлично състояние - леко захабен външен вид, неизползвана книга.
Език:: Английски
Наличност:: 1 бр.

За изданието

Издателство:: Fourth Estate Limited
Град на издаване:: London
Година:: 1994 г.
Език:: Английски
Страници:: 336
Корици:: Твърди
Категория:: Мемоари, биографии, писма
Тегло (гр.):: 698
Ширина (мм):: 165
Височина (мм):: 240
Дебелина (мм):: 33
ISBN:: 9781857021899

For thirty years James Hanson has been at the interface of business and politics, mixing freely with mandarins and power brokers inside and outside the Government of the day, and dining this time his company has grown to he one of the ten most valuable in Britain, more profitable than BP or Lloyds Bank. Its success lias been founded on some of the most daring - some would say cynical - takeovers: imperial (iron]) and Consolidated Goldfields in the UK, Peahody and SOI in the US, among many others. In an address to businessmen in New York in March 1994 Joint Major spoke in terms of the companies 'from over there that are doing rather well over here'. Consciously or not, the prime minister was echoing the slogan that belongs not to British business in general but very specifically to one company: Hanson. That single utterance reveals t he extent of the collusion between Government and big business. Knighted by Harold Wilson in his celebrated 'Lavender List' in 1976, James Hanson none the less became a devoted admirer of Mrs Thatcher during the 1980s when Hanson pic was one of the most generous contributors to Conservative Party funds. Hanson received his peerage from Mrs Thatcher in 1983. But Hanson and his long-time business partner Lord White are not simply two buttoned-up acquisitions merchants with a taste for money and little else. They are colourful socialites, commuting between their homes in England and their Palm Sittings estates, who have in their time escorted Jean Simmons, Audrey Hepburn, Joan Collins and Grace Kelly, in 1992 Hanson celebrated his seventieth birthday. He nurtures dynastic ambit ions and wishes to leave a commercial empire the equivalent of that of Sainsbury or Carnegie in the hands of his son. The changing corporate and economic culture of the recessionary 1990s, however, threatens his grand plans. In this biography, Alex Brunmier and Roger ('owe reveal very much more than one life; they have gained unique access to the inside workings of the Hanson empire, enabling them to open a window on to the complex weave of politics, business and power that, perhaps more titan in any other individual, is synthesised in the life and career of James Hanson. * About the Author Alex Brunmier has edited the Guardian's Finance and Economics pages since 1989, where he writes a daily column. He was previously the paper's foreign editor and from 1979 to 1989 the paper's Washington correspondent. In 1988 he received the prestigious Overseas Press Club award as best US foreign correspondent. He has a degree in economies and polities from Southampton University and an MBA from Bradford University Management Centre. Roger Cowe joined the Guardian's financial staff in 1987. In that year he founded the Outlook column of company comment and analysis to which he continues to contribute. Previously he was deputy editor at Accountancy Age. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and has an MBA from Manchester Business School. He is the editor of Hie Guardian Guide to the UK's Top Companies 1995, also published by Fourth Estate. ** Contents List of Plates vii Preface and Acknowledgements ix Chapter 1: The Private Potentate 1 Chapter 2: Packhorses, Charabancs and Trucking 15 Chapter 3: Prosperity, Playboys and Partners 35 Chapter 4: The Slater Years: 1964-73 60 Chapter 5: Up and Away: 1973-83 98 Chapter 6: Megadeals: 1983-91 134 Chapter 7: The Political Player 179 Chapter 8: The Siege at Millbank 213 Chapter 9: Seeking a New Identity 240 Chapter 10: The Reckoning 269 Appendix 1: Table of main UK bids, failed bids and disposals 309 Appendix 2: Profit record of Hanson units 1975/6 to 1982/3 312 Appendix 3: Hanson share price, earnings and dividend, and sales record graphs 313 Appendix 4: The effect of advanced corporation tax write-offs and UK corporation tax graphs 314 Appendix 5: Sample ownership structure of a Hanson subsidiary: Kidde 315 Notes and References 317 Index 327