Page 191 - harryDEC12_clean.iba

So at 11.00 we walked along Leadenhall Street. After about a kilometer we turned left and entered a multistory building, whose red brick portal was decorated by a name plaque with the address 22 Billiter Street. Here were residing the representatives of the companies, that had concentrated their underwriters for marine and aviation insurance in this property in Billiter Street to have closer dealings with events. Foreign insurers too, if they belonged to the Institute of London Underwriters, were represented in big numbers, Frenchmen such as AGF, Scandinavians, Spaniards, all the way to the „commies“, as they were called by the brokers, the companies from the communist states which were actively participating in the business, even if malicious tongues said that their presence at this second insurance Market served only to spy on Western business practices. Among them for a long time were the "Black Sea and Baltic" from the Soviet Union and „The People’s Republic of China Insurance Company“ as well as the “GRAND UNION” from Hong Kong, with dubious shareholders and a Mr. Wuh at helm, of whom it was said that he was one of the bosses of the Chinese mafia. Many of those companies had eccentric representatives. Of the representative of „Black Sea and Baltic“ the story was that with him you had to go through a baptism of fire that consisted in the consumption of enormous quantities of vodka, as early as morning. Many a broker found himself later in a gutter, which gave rise to a divorce or two. The building had a large greened internal courtyard and around every story there was a walkway on the outside, from which one entered the passages where the offices of the companies were to be found.
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Brian Weydell of the Orion Insurance Company has his office on the fourth floor at the end of a long corridor, a simple anteroom with a receptionist and seating for the brokers. We are led straight into his office. A broad-shouldered man, bald head, middle-aged and with a jovial demeanor rises from his chair:
"Hello, John, it’s good to see you. Recently you’ve rarely found time for us, so it must be something very urgent, something hard to place, I assume,“
He says to my partner while getting up and shaking John’s hand before turning to me.
„And you Sir, are Harry Weyrauch from Germany, the new acquisition of CSB?“ Obviously John has already initiated me.
"What new and attractive thing have you got to present, sir?“
"Well ..." I say, restrained, and fumble nervously with the slip, „we have here quote share reinsurance for the entire European Marine Cargo business of AIU ... we work with exclusive commission ...“
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