| Code | DS/UK/35 |
| Corporate Name | The London Merchant Bank |
| Dates | 1916 - 1939 |
| OtherFormsOfName | London & Hanseatic Bank Ltd (1873 - 1916); London Merchant Securities Ltd (1939 - 2007) |
| Activity | Originally established as the London & Hanseatic Bank Ltd in 1873, the firm ran into difficulties as the outbreak of the First World War and in 1914 and 1915 it received advances from the Bank of England in respect of pre-moratorium acceptances. It was reorganised as the London Merchant Bank (LMB) in 1916. After the War it difficultly with repaying the advances and at Governor Montagu Norman's behest the capital structure of LMB was altered and preference shares issued to the Bank. These shares were held on behalf of the Bank by Frederic Lubbock, chairman of LMB, until his death in 1927 when they were transferred to the Securities Trust Ltd. As majority preference shareholders the Bank received reports annually from Deloittes and were consulted on dividend policy. Dividends on preference shares were passed in 1930, and the Governor decreed that thereafter the bank should be kept 'just alive'. The banking business was sold in 1939 to Guinness Mahon, certain frozen assets were transferred to the specially-formed Continental Assets Realisation Trust (CART), and the remaining assets left in the company which then changed its name to London Merchant Securities Ltd.
In 1957 the property tycoon Lord Rayne acquired the company and used it to develop his various interests. In 2007 London Merchant Securities merged with Derwent Valley Holdings to become Derwent London. |
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