FIGHT FOR CITY OPENS UP WITH A GOOD CUPPA
IF THERE’S one City high-flier who finds it hard to say no to a new opportunity, it must be Stuart Popham, the jovial senior partner of legal giant Clifford Chance.
Popham – in addition to his role at the head of the world’s largest law firm, his chairmanship of the CBI’s London council, and his membership of the City of London’s EU advisory board (among others) – has agreed to chair TheCityUK, the new body set up to promote the interests of the UK financial services industry.
“Yes, I am rather trying to retrieve my work life balance,” he chuckles. “There hasn’t been much time for sailing recently…” Quite. Still, Popham does seem an ideal figure to improve the general public’s understanding and tolerance of the City, if his choice of explanatory example is anything to go by.
“What I always say is that financial services are involved in everything – right down to your humble cup of tea,” he says. (Farmers in India hedging the price of tea; chartering a vessel to bring it to Blighty; converting pounds to rupees once it’s been sold, borrowing money to open new tea plantations, selling it to large supermarkets who’ve borrowed money on the bond market; consumers using debit cards to buy the tea… you get the picture.)
If you want to strike at the heart of the British public, The Capitalist can’t think of a better place to start than with a good cuppa.
GIRLS ON TOP
Ladies, get ready to preen: Hedge Fund Research has found that female fund managers delivered almost double the returns of their male rivals over the period between January 2000 and May 2009.
Apparently, we women are infinitely better at managing risk, and are also better in a crisis – in 2008, female-run funds were down 9.6 per cent compared to a 19 per cent drop for men.
At the risk of being lynched by the gentlemen of the City, how about telling us something we didn’t know?
DOG FIGHT
What is it with these airline chief executives lashing out at their arch rivals?
EasyJet boss Andy Harrison yesterday took a leaf out of his forceful Ryanair counterpart Michael O’Leary’s book as he slammed the high-profile merger between British Airways (led by Willie Walsh, above right) and Spain’s Iberia.
“BA stopped being a competitor to easyJet a long time ago,” he sniffed. “We’re far more efficient than them on short haul flights – they’re just not very good at it.” Ouch.
COSTUME PARTY
The City is just full of unknown treasures, isn’t it?
Word reaches The Capitalist of the Square Mile’s friendliest – and most seasonal – neighbourhood tramp, currently inhabiting the area around St Paul’s and Gresham Street. Said vagrant dresses every day in either a Bob the Builder outfit – complete with hard hat and fluorescent yellow coat – or a Santa Claus suit, bobble hat and all (though I’m told the rotation happens year-round rather than being reserved for the festive season.
“Perhaps he’s an ex-Lloyds banker haunting the streets outside their headquarters, spreading Christmas cheer,” ponders one passer-by, dreamily…