For the purposes of giving you what you want, I need to tell you right now what this post is about. It’s about Danish utilities company Dong Energy. It’s set to be the world’s biggest stock market listing thus far in what has been a light (to say the least) year for IPOs.

I laughed a few months ago when I first heard the headline ‘Vietnam devalued the Dong this morning.’ A little funnier was my Vietnamese colleague telling me how “… the Dong has been f**ked recently.” And I laughed again this afternoon when I read that Dong Energy is intent on raising a fairly loud $2.8bn on 9 June for its existing shareholders – the Danish Government and, most importantly, investment banking behemoth Goldman Sachs. Ding Dong, Dong Energy!

Yet it’s been more Ding than Dong for Dong Energy if past attempts to list are anything to go by – the company has had to cancel its IPO on three separate occasions citing political and financial instability…. I’m guessing in Denmark. Now, it turns out I’m not wrong in thinking that Denmark and ‘political turmoil’ aren’t usually housed together in the same tome, let alone the same sentence, so what on earth caused these particular bouts of political turmoil?

Well, it turns out it was the 2013/14 attempt by Dong Energy, majority owned by the Danish Government, to sell a large stake to Goldman Sachs that Dinged the population of Denmark so much that the coalition government nearly broke apart. The population of Denmark doesn’t like Goldman Sachs and its reasons for doing so, made clear in January 2014 in a series of protests against the Dong Deal, are rather interesting when re-visited today.

Firstly, and least interestingly, protesters loathed Goldman Sachs for causing the financial crisis which, let’s face it, it probably did a little bit. They were all involved. That’s always going to annoy everyone, especially those of a left-leaning political stance. Ok, boring.

Next up, GS has profited from cluster bombs – something Denmark opposes wholeheartedly. Just Denmark? Most civilised countries, surely. Fair enough. And I’d wager that many, many other investment vehicles – not just banks – have also profited from the sector they call ‘Defence.’ Cluster bombs, barrel bombs, normal bombs, nuclear warheads are all examples of perverse, indiscriminate instruments of death (or ‘defence’ as some call it). It’s surely a little naive to single out Goldman Sachs. Nonetheless, cluster bombs – nasty things. I’m still on the Dane’s side – always will be actually.

Then it gets just a little bit juicier. Goldman Sachs helped Greece hide its deficit and misled policy makers in order to help the since ‘found out’ nation get into the Eurozone. You can’t argue with that one – look at what’s happened since.

But it gets more like deja vu every minute. Before continuing, if you take nothing else from this article, take this: When it comes to the markets, the devil is always in the detail. Never so true as it’s been in the case of Goldman Sachs’s 19% minority bit of Dong.

Although it was sold a minority stake, the bank managed to retain some hefty vetoing rights that even extend to the company’s choice of CEO. It also doesn’t pay tax in Denmark, preferring to… er… well… evade it presumably by funneling it through places like Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands.

I honestly thought I’d read something about Hitler, but the trail kind of went cold at the tax thing. I agree wholeheartedly with the arguments put forward against Goldman’s involvement. But the fact is that since 2013, the company has apparently got stronger, with profits up and and debt down.

It’s invested more in renewable energy in the form of offshore wind. The Danish Government will retain a controlling stake (although no doubt Goldman Sachs will retain its right to both veto whatever it wants and pay no tax). And given what Dong Energy has achieved (despite its ridiculous name), it’ll be interesting to see whether or not we’ll get another dose of social and political uproar in reaction to this.

Money talks, baby!

Augustin Eden (26 May)