FAIRFAX CO-FOUNDER CRAWFORD ON THE HUNT FOR A NEW INVESTOR
IS A changing of the guard in the offing down at boutique investment bank Fairfax?
I hear that Rolly Crawford, who co-founded the firm back in 2006, is on the lookout for a new major investor to take Fairfax forward in its ambitions. A number of interested parties have already been sounded out about the investment, though no deal has yet been reached.
Murmurs have been rippling through the City for a while about a new direction for the firm, and those at the top of its ranks confirmed yesterday that if a deal goes ahead, the status of chief executive Stefan Allesch-Taylor’s family trust – currently the largest shareholder – could well end up diminished.
Incidentally, you’ll remember that Fairfax was the subject of much speculation earlier this year about a potential tie-up with Astaire. The bank never confirmed the talks, but Astaire later ran into problems with its takeover of fellow stockbroker Hoodless Brennan, changed its top management team and announced an abrupt U-turn in strategy – so Crawford and co. will probably have thanked their lucky stars that no deal was done.
CAN’T FIGHT TIME
Deadlines are a nasty invention, aren’t they?
Wandering down by the river in the City recently, The Capitalist chanced upon the swanky new headquarters being built for Japanese investment bank Nomura at Watermark Place, where the construction workers were beavering away despite it being the weekend. And, if their mutterings about “never going to be ready in time” and “so much work left to do” are anything to go by, it seems that not all is going strictly according to plan.
Not that it’s made any difference to the bank’s plans, mind you, which are still firmly on course. The real estate and services staffers moved across to the new building last week (where they’re presumably picking their way through the debris to get to their completed floor); trading support is moving next weekend and the trading and investment banking teams start their relocation in August.
Looks like those builders had better pull their socks up, and pronto.
BIG SOCIETY
Quote of the day: a jibe at Prime Minister David Cameron’s optimistic plans for social revolution, courtesy of ever-irreverent Mayor of London Boris Johnson.
Speaking at the opening of the first of his new “cycle superhighways” yesterday, Boris quipped: “We must tackle the scourge of obesity – or the ‘Big Society’, as it’s sometimes known…”
PROUD PARTNER
Good to see Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts winning accolades for her pioneering work in giving a voice to mums all over the country. Roberts took the 97th spot on the Guardian’s annual media 100 hotlist yesterday, after the site established itself as a powerful lobbying forum in the run-up to the last general election.
One person who’ll be particularly chuffed about that result, of course, is Roberts’ hubby Ian Katz – the Guardian’s deputy editor.
COOL CUSTOMER
Spotted grooving away in front of the main stage at the Latitude music festival at the weekend: none other than Standard Chartered chief executive Peter Sands. Sands and his novelist wife Betsy Tobin were happy to get a bit of quality time together as they soaked up the sun and the music, with the bank boss commenting that he hadn’t seen much of his two kids apart from the odd text saying they needed a bit more cash…
PETROL HEADS
Best of luck at the weekend to a hare-brained young chap from Killik & Co, Harry Bell, who’s planning to get in a tin can to chug all the way from Surrey to Mongolia.
Bell and his chum Jonny Price will be setting out on their 14,000 mile journey in a 2001 Perodua Nippa, which I’m told is a bit like a Smart car and the “most ridiculous vehicle” the pair could find. (For petrolheads out there, it’s an 849 cc, 55bhp, three cyclinder “monster”, which demonstrates its lack of brute strength.)
The trip will take the pair through Romania and Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan and various other obscure ‘stans’ before reaching Russia and Mongolia, all in about five weeks and in aid of the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation and Mercy Corps charities.
“Depending on how well you know us, most people seem surprised that we have remained out of prison in the UK, so how we’re going to survive Iran and Turkmenistan is beyond me,” writes Bell on his trip blog.