JOE LEWIS TO HOST HIGH-ROLLERS’ GOLF IN HIS TAKEOVER DOWNTIME
THERE IS still more than a month to go before Bahamas-based billionaire Joe Lewis can come back with a bid for pub chain Mitchells & Butlers.
To occupy himself in the meantime, the financier is hosting two of the world’s most high net worth golf tournaments. The first, the Albany International Challenge co-hosted with Rob Hersov’s Adoreum Partners near Lewis’s Bahamas home; the second, the Tavistock Cup in Orlando.
Both are extremely private. Only 50 business associates of the man who owns Tottenham Hotspurs are invited to the Bahamas tournament from 9 to 11 March, where cleared Spurs manager Harry Redknapp would be received with open arms. “[Redknapp] is not on our current list, but he absolutely would be welcome,” said an aide. As for the Tavistock Cup ten days later – part of Lewis’s leisure, finance, energy and property conglomerate Tavistock Group – only sponsors, invited guests and members of the Albany, Isleworth, Queenwood and Lake Nona clubs are welcome.
That means Aidan Heavey, the founding director of Tullow Oil; banking executives from fellow sponsors Citi Private Bank and RBC Capital Markets; plus Andrew White, CEO of marketing agency WSM, and perhaps his father-in-law Sir Martyn Arbib, who ran Perpetual in the late 1990s.
Golfers Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, backers of Lewis’s Albany development, will represent the resort’s team, but Lewis himself has too much going on to take part. “There are a lot of interesting opportunities at the moment for people with good cash balances,” hints a source. Whatever could El Rico be looking to buy next?
COMMITMENT ISSUE
IT’S THE thought that counts. So thanks to ex-Liontrust chief Nigel Legge’s new fund Vinculum, which sent The Capitalist a card reminding that love – like the asset manager’s fees – is performance related.
“Commitment may involve a higher element of interpersonal risk,” reads the Valentine’s-themed circular to would-be investors. “This can result in profound and lasting resentment, chronic loss of self-esteem, mutual loathing, and periodic bouts of seething rage.” Where do I sign?