RACEHORSE OWNERS DO THE DOUBLE AT GREEN’S
IT HAS been two years since Lloyds Bank on Cornhill became the City outpost of Green’s. And to mark the occasion, the restaurant’s co-owner Simon Parker-Bowles threw a “double celebration” for his horse racing associates at the mezzanine Runner Bar.
Double, because Parker-Bowles also unveiled the collection of silks donated by his friends: the colours of nine Derby winners and four Grand National champions, among others, from owners including Irish tycoon JP McManus, Cenkos founder Andy Stewart, and Prince Khalid Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, represented at the dinner by his manager Lord Teddy Grimthorpe and business adviser James Schwartz.
The silks have been hung “in no particular order”, said Parker-Bowles – which may explain why the colours of his co-owners Lord Daresbury and Lord Vestey, the chairman of Aintree and the newly retired chairman of Cheltenham, are not exactly centre stage.
“You may note the close relationship I have with my two partners in this restaurant, as Lord Vestey’s colours hang in the gents’ loo and Lord Daresbury’s in the ladies’” he joked.
OFFICE ROMANCE
SO FAREWELL then John Harrison, the smooth-talking “Commander Bond” of the City, who marked his retirement as a managing director at Numis with drinks at the City of London Club.
The parting address to the sharp-suited broker – nicknamed “the tailor’s dummy” at his former employer Lloyd’s of London – was given by Numis CEO Oliver Hemsley, who introduced Harrison as the inaugural winner of City A.M’s Silver Fox awards.
Which set Harrison up nicely for his own self-deprecating speech, in which he recalled his first-ever City Christmas party as a young insurance broker at Lloyd’s, where he enjoyed a “flirtation” with the secretary Bernice.
A wrong career move, as it turned out – the next day Harrison was taken aside by the firm’s chairman, no less, and informed: “Generally, the management don’t dally with the typing pool.”
FAMILY FORTUNES
IT WAS a family affair at Anita Choudhrie’s Diwali party, with her industrialist husband Sudhir and son Bhanu, director of C&C Alpha Group, out in support at the “beautifully illuminated” Fulham showroom of designer Patrick Mavros.
Guest of honour, however, was DLA Piper partner Miriam González Durántez (below), who has joined forces with Anita Choudhrie on “60 for 60”, the flagship campaign of the Path for Success charity that aims to raise £100k to support NHS hospitals across the UK.
No doubt steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and Reading FC saviour John Madejski, who were invited to the Diwali fundraiser but were unable to attend on the night, will put their weight behind the cause…
BIG HITTERS
THERE was just one point in it, but the four-man team from MF Global stayed the course to win the financial service world’s “premier golfing title”, the Bankers and Brokers tournament at Antequera Golf near Malaga.
The broker-dealers (above) are now heading off on a golf break to Ireland courtesy of sponsor IG Markets, leaving second-placed Tradition, the interdealer broking arm of Compagnie Financière Tradition, to fight the markets back in the office.