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GABRIEL EICHLERFounder and Managing Partner, Benson Oak
Sniffing out phonies has been Eichler's stock-in-trade since 1991, when the U.S.-educated Slovak native opened his investment-banking boutique, Benson Oak. A University of Chicago-trained economist and ex-chief international economist at Bank of America, he kept clients away from scamsters who offered to ''help'' them, steering them instead toward U.S.-style finance and management. Eichler quickly racked up an impressive client list, including Czech energy giant CEZ, which eventually hired him as its chief financial officer. In 1993, he supervised a $2 billion bond offering, the Czech Republic's first real issue. The U.S.-style prospectus he created is the template for most Czech bond offerings since. ''He pretty much created the market,'' says American banking and investment consultant Mark Rooney. ''Before Eichler, no one had a clue.'' Many privatized Czech companies are still relatively clueless, and that's where Eichler sees his next opportunity. Through Benson Oak, he's planning to make direct equity investments in return for a board seat and a hand in restructuring. Analysts are wondering--and Eichler isn't saying--which floundering company Eichler will turn around next. But whoever he's going to work with will first have to reckon with Sed'a.
By James Drake in Prague
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Anyone dealing with Gabriel Eichler had better like dogs. And Eichler's dog Sed'a had better like the person, too. When a Czech executive came looking to retain Eichler recently, the boxer-doberman tried to bite him. A reference check revealed that the would-be client was a con artist. ''I hardly ever take on new clients without Sed'a's say-so,'' says the debonair 47-year-old Eichler.
Updated Oct. 16, 1997 by bwwebmaster
Copyright 1997, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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