Droves of banking analysts abandoned New York's Plaza Hotel Thursday morning and headed up Fifth Avenue to The Pierre.
No, it wasn't that the service was bad. It was just that at the Pierre, analysts could hear John F. Grundhofer and Gerry B. Cameron announce the planned $9 billion merger of their banks.
On the Plaza menu: a panel discussion on wholesale banking at the Bank and Financial Analysts Association's annual meeting.
"I feel bad for Nancy Newcomb," said one analyst headed to the Pierre- referring to the banker who represented Citicorp on the wholesale banking panel at the Plaza.
For First Bank System and U.S. Bancorp, the timing of the announcement could not have been better. Thanks to the Plaza meeting, few of the banking industry's watchers on Wall Street had to travel more than two blocks to get to the banks' event.
Still, not every analyst thought the trip, however short, was worth it.
George Salem of Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co.-one of the most outspoken members of the bank analyst community-chose to stay at the Plaza. He sent an assistant to the Pierre.
"This merger is very predictable," he said. "U.S. Bancorp was too big to be small and too small to be big."
Those that attended the First Bank announcement said it was well- orchestrated. Mr. Cameron later noted that the audience applauded at the end of the presentation-a rare gesture for Wall Street analysts.
But Mr. Cameron should not jump to conclusions.
"The clapping started in the back of the room, where all the investment bankers in the deal were sitting," one analyst said. "Everyone else was being polite."
