Any Other Business – 09/04
SO, DIAMOND Bob has snaffled one of his old colleagues from Barclays, John Vitalo, to head up his new African bank buying venture, Atlas Mara. What does it all mean? Well, it could mean we’ll see the eternally cleanly-shaved Diamond sporting a tash come November. As you can see from Vitalo’s Movember mug shot (pictured), the hirsute banker is a supporter of the mo movement – he raised £1,000 in 2013. Hopefully it’ll rub off on Bob, and next year they’ll earn a few extra, er, bob.
RLM Finsbury chairman Roland Rudd was pretty chuffed to see that Holcim’s head honcho Rolf Soiron was thinking of him when he came up with the codename for the cement giant’s merger talks. Rudd was working with Holcim on its £33bn tie-up with Lafarge when he spotted that the code name was Chelsea2014, a nod to Rudd’s chosen team. But when he expressed his delight to Soiron the German (and fan of Swiss team Basel) knocked him back, saying the name was to celebrate Basel’s double victory over Chelsea in the Champions League last year. Rudd however managed to have the last laugh, pointing out that the boys in blue went on to beat Basel in the Europa League later that year, cementing his one-upmanship.