Fleming Family investment boutique starts up in London

Roddie Fleming, the former chairman of Robert Fleming, has set up a new investment boutique with Sir John Craven, the former Morgan Grenfell chief executive who advised the Fleming family on the £4bn sale of the investment bank to Chase Manhattan.

Roddie Fleming, the former chairman of Robert Fleming, has set up a new investment boutique with Sir John Craven, the former Morgan Grenfell chief executive who advised the Fleming family on the £4bn sale of the investment bank to Chase Manhattan.

The firm, Fleming Family and Partners, has a staff of 60 - many of them family members or refugees from the old Robert Fleming, which has been subsumed within the combined operations of Chase and JP Morgan.

Fleming Family, operating out of offices in Dover Street in London, is aiming to offer specialist asset management and niche advisory boutique services.

Mr Fleming, who was chairman of the firm his great grandfather founded for less than six months before it was sold to the US banking giant, was expected to have made around £30m from the sale. Much of that is believed to have been ploughed back into the new business.

The Fleming family owned 29 per cent of Robert Fleming and their share of the sale proceeds was around £1.2bn. Mr Fleming, who succeeded John Manser as chairman of Robert Fleming at the turn of the year, has seen himself as carrying the mantle of one of Britain's most illustrious merchant banking dynasties.

Mr Fleming is understood to be keen for Bernard Taylor, who was head of investment banking at Robert Fleming, to join him. Mr Taylor has been named joint head of international investment banking with JP Morgan's Rod Peacock at Chase/JP Morgan following Chase's $36bn (£25bn) takeover of JP Morgan in September.

A number of family members were actively involved in the old Robert Fleming including Philip and and Adam Fleming, who returned to South Africa last year.