DEREK DOUGLAS profiles Peter de Vink, the colourful ''financial
engineer'' who specialises in mating the man with ideas to the men with
money.
''PETER de Vink? He's a brilliant deal-maker, the best fixer I ever
met.''
''Peter? He's an unguided missile. Often he rockets off at tangents
but when he's on target he can be devastating.''
''De Vink? How can I put it. Let's just say he's pushy -- and leave it
at that.''
THERE are no neutrals on the Scottish financial scene when it comes to
Peter H. J. de Vink, founder and ''sole breadwinner'' (his words) of
Edinburgh Financial and General Holdings.
The Flying Dutchman with the eight-entry listing in the Edinburgh
phone book -- ''Peter's your original posaphone merchant. It's his
umbilical cord'' -- arrived in Scotland in 1963 to take a B.Com degree
at Edinburgh University, and simply never went home.
He calls himself a ''financial engineer'', mating the man with ideas
to the men with money. It is an outwardly simple formula which has made
him and his clients a lot of money in the 12 or so years since he left
Ivory and Sime -- ''an amicable parting but it broke my heart'' -- and
set up on his own.
Ever since, he has been a high-profile member and enfant terrible of
the archly conservative Scottish financial community. He has many
admirers and not a few professional enemies, rivals, call them what you
will, who rather resent his flamboyant approach.
''Peter is so up-front. He will call you up totally out of the blue
and say 'I hear you are meeting so-and-so. I think I should be there.' I
mean, what can you do?'' despairs one senior colleague on the Edinburgh
financial scene.
Another says: ''Peter is ever so well connected. And he doesn't mind
telling you that he is. He name drops all the time. Mind you, I've been
to dinner at his house and am always amazed at the members of the Great
and the Good who appear around his dining table.''
Yet another declares: ''He is very political. He says he would die for
Margaret Thatcher. But I'll give you an example of how his enthusiasm
can run away with him. He organised some kind of fund-raising committee
for the Conservative Party. He was telling anybody who would listen that
the business community had done rather well under Mrs T and maybe they
should start putting their hands in their pockets.
''He sent round letters to hundreds of people. I can tell you that to
my certain knowledge some of them were already supporting the party and
they were furious. But that's Peter. He gets carried away by his own
amazing enthusiasm.''
The ''fund-raising committee'' was the Scottish Conservative Business
Group which was set up to raise cash and bolster moral after the 1987
General Election debacle. Mr de Vink was a member, along with other such
business luminaries as Sir Norman Macfarlane, Sir Ian MacGregor, Ivan
Straker and Angus Grossart.
Last spring it was announced that another committee, the Scottish
Young Business Group, was to be created under Mr de Vink's chairmanship.
He was then aged 48. Typically, he declared at its formation that some
members of the parent body were ''yesterday's men''.
What was required was young blood. ''This is a young person's world,
not a world of people of 60 and 70. We want to show them up,'' he said.
Then, there is this from another of his compatriots in the closed
world of Scottish finance: ''A lot of things that have happened in
Scotland in recent years have happened because of Peter. I'm thinking
about his campaign on Royal Bank independence, floating off of Ferranti
shares 10 years or so ago and things like that.
''Because of the nature of the things he does his involvement does not
always become known. Even Peter doesn't trumpet some of the deals he's
been involved in.
''He will tell you he is incredibly well connected, and he is; he will
tell you that he has made a great deal of money, and he has; but I will
tell you that some of these highly placed people who are friends of
Peter's are very careful about what they say to him. He is such a
disarmingly frank individual that he can, at times, be indiscreet.
''Peter has become part of the scenery. I think he is at his best when
he is being unconventional but because of his dreadfully high profile
these days his very unconventionality is becoming predictable. Because
of that I suspect that it will become increasingly difficult for him to
succeed on the basis of his unconventionality.
''Sure, he has made enemies. In any deal there are winners and losers
and the people on the losing end of a de Vink deal will have been
discomfited and will take pleasure in any failures he might have. But
there's no doubt that the Scottish financial scene would be a much
duller place without Peter around.''
Last week he was on holiday in Spain when his office told him that a
Herald profile was in preparation. He was initially unwilling to talk
over the telephone.
''I don't like this. Can we not meet; have lunch?
''That would be so much more satisfactory. It's so unsatisfactory to
conduct a conversation of this ilk over the telephone.
''I really don't want any publicity. Twenty years ago, maybe, but not
now. Maybe I'm maturing. What is it they say, 'it's the high trees that
catch most of the wind'. I'm anxious to have a lower profile these
days.''
He did, though, agree to continue.
''You have been talking to people about me? And they have been saying
these things? Some of these things I find quite offensive. I would not
myself say these things about colleagues and rivals.
''The kind of people you should be talking to are not my competitors
because they will give you a jaundiced view. I would not comment to you
on my competitors because that would not be proper.''
Mr de Vink then proceeded to furnish a list of names, with home
telephone numbers, of colleagues and clients who would be able to ''give
you a much more objective opinion''.
''You ask if I am well connected and have influential friends. It is
all relative isn't it? Really, I do like people. I am interested in
people. If that is the case then it is so much easier to be well
connected, as you put it.
''But you can only really be well connected if you talk sense. If you
do not talk sense then these people will not come and sit at your dinner
table.''
Mr de Vink lists Scottish Secretary Malcolm Rifkind as a friend. ''I
was at university with him. When he became Secretary of State he asked
me if I could help him because he felt that so many businessmen had done
so well under this Government but they were not willing to put their
heads above the parapet.
''Malcolm Rifkind did not like that and I said that I would try to
help him. That was the start of the Business Groups.''
But what, I asked him, about the begging letters sent out to
businessmen who were already Tory supporters. ''That is not true. I can
categorically deny that. We were very sensitive about every name. Every
name was cleared by Central Office so that I would not write to any
person who was already supporting the party.
''There were two people who got letters who were in that category. One
of them took grave exception but it was not my fault. I had cleared the
names with Central Office. A mistake was made -- two people from a hell
of a lot of names, six or seven hundred I think. The word processor was
working overtime. I topped and tailed all of the letters.''
What then, about that rather undiplomatic suggestion that the original
Tory Business Group was made up of ''yesterday's men'' and that the new
group was for the ''men of today and tomorrow''?
''I never said that. That story appeared in the Glasgow Herald but I
never said it. The words were put in my mouth by a colleague of yours.
The Herald is a superb paper -- but I was bitten by that article.''
Which brings us, neatly, to the subject of newspapers and one of de
Vink's most recent public pronouncements -- that he and a group of
unnamed colleagues wished to buy The Scotsman newspaper. He had appeared
on television to declare his intentions.
''Yes. That was the case. I think what has been happening to it is so
sad. It makes me quite ill to look at what The Scotsman has become under
the present management.
''I think it would be easy as anything to get a group of Scottish
businessmen together to buy The Scotsman. I have even, just in case it
was me that was the problem, tried to get Thomson's management
interested in a Dutch friend buying over their Scottish operations.
Everything I have tried has failed. It makes me sad.
''I would have to say, also, that it is sad that both of Scotland's
great national newspapers are owned by absentee landlords. Don't you
think that they should be owned and controlled in Scotland?''
I pointed out that in the case of the Herald the paper was prospering
under a dynamic Scottish management, and that Tiny Rowland and Lonrho
maintained a light and guiding hand on the tiller.
''Yes, Paul Spicer takes a look at what is happening, but I can
appreciate that is the case with the Herald. What you are saying is:
'We're doing all right Charlie. Leave us alone.' I like the Herald.''
He was beginning to sound rather like Victor Kiam, the man who liked
the electric shaver so much that he bought the company. ''You have a
good newspaper but, no, I can honestly say that I have never given any
serious thought to making a deal for the Glasgow Herald,'' he declares.
Finally, is Peter de Vink rich? The practised reply suggests that he
has been asked the question before.
''Rich, what is rich? I am rich because I have two healthy children, a
good wife and a comfortable existence. I enjoy what I do.
''I am enjoying my holiday but I am looking forward to getting back to
work. That is what I call rich. When is this going in the paper? Monday.
I can hardly wait.''
