Robert Fleming & Co.

Robert Fleming & Co. was an asset manager and merchant bank founded in Dundee, Scotland, in 1873. In 1909 the firm moved its headquarters to London. It was sold to Chase Manhattan Bank for over $7 billion in 2000.

Flemings was a 50% partner in the highly successful Asian investment bank Jardine Fleming. At its height in 1997, Robert Fleming Holdings reported over 8,000 employees and operations in 44 countries.

The firm of Robert Fleming & Co., known as Flemings, was founded in Dundee, Scotland in 1873 by Robert Fleming, a successful manufacturer of jute fabrics used for sandbags in the American Civil War. The firm was originally formed as a series of investment trusts, pooling money from Scottish investors into overseas ventures, and later moved into merchant banking. In 1909 the firm moved its headquarters to London.

In 1873, Robert Fleming cofounded the Scottish American Investment Company for the purpose of investing in high risk, high return American railroad bonds. The Scottish Widows was a significant early investor. In 1876, Flemings represented the bondholders' committee of the Erie Railway, then under the control of Jay Gould, and saw its plan for the financial reorganisation of the railroad largely adopted. Due to the successful Erie experience, and in its role as a significant railroad investor, Flemings was involved in the successful restructuring of numerous other North American railroads in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s. Each restructuring produced significant gains for the Fleming investment trusts and drew more investors. Flemings assumed a central role in the 1886 battle with Jay Gould for control of the Texas & Pacific Railway, in which the Flemings bondholder group ultimately triumphed. Overall, Flemings claimed to have made a 40% return on investments in US railroads.

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