LSE CHIEF XAVIER ROLET PONDERS AN OVERHAUL OF INTERIOR DESIGN
XAVIER Rolet, the dynamic new top dog over at the London Stock Exchange, just can’t seem to ease up in his quest to stamp his mark on the exchange.
In the past few months, Rolet has been very busy – commencing talks to buy up rival Turquoise, axing the LSE’s long-standing M&A and PR advisers, striking a deal to replace the exchange’s IT provider and shaking up the marketing team. And now, The Capitalist hears he’s even got his eye on a bit of a cosmetic overhaul.
Yes, “The Source” – the sculpture of moving spheres installed in the atrium when the exchange moved to its flagship Paternoster Square headquarters five years ago – is officially destined for the scrap heap after the powers that be decided it is about time for a change.
The sculpture, which stretches eight storeys from the ground floor to the glass roof of the entrance hall, comes to life when the markets open at 8am, when the spheres start to float up and down their cables to reflect the ups and downs of the trading day.
“The Source had a set lifetime and that’s coming to an end,” an LSE spinner tells me, proudly. “We’re now looking at different dimensions of our market opening experience.”
Different dimensions, eh? Given Rolet’s ambitious nature, this could get interesting…
SHOW STOPPERS
Oh, the joys of YouTube. Gone are the days when drunken antics are confined to the darkened corners of London’s watering holes: now, thanks to camera-friendly “mates”, they are posted on the internet for all and sundry to see.
In that spirit, fun-loving fund management aficionados might want to point themselves in the direction of a duet on YouTube between Gartmore’s head of UK retail Richard Pursglove and PR executive Rebecca Grundy.
Pursglove, I hear, quite commandeered the stage at Belushi’s on Borough High Street last week, belting out classics such as Mack the Knife and the Human League’s Don’t You Want Me Baby.
The video in question – which you can find by inputting the two names, Gartmore and the word “duet” – is of Aretha Franklin’s Say A Little Prayer – and is, if The Capitalist may say so, a stunning showcase of Pursglove’s formidable talent.
NAKED AMBITION
The curse of the forwarded email strikes again. Phil Davis – market commentator and blogger behind Phil’s Stock World, one of the most popular financial advice websites in the States – is coming to Britain, his PR flunkey is happy to inform us.
Of course, given Davis’ markets experience and incredible stock picking record (I paraphrase), said spinner is keen to schedule in some interviews with the UK press.
More interesting, perhaps, is the prior email correspondence with Davis which she has conveniently forgotten to delete off the bottom of the release.
“Next after this I shall be talking to the Tories about you (they WILL be the next government,” she writes to her client, who is ecstatic.
“That’s great,” enthuses Davis. “I’d love to be elected to the House of Lords and get a title!”
PIG SICK
Officials have probably seen some pretty hairy possessions offered as collateral against bank loans in the past, but this has got to take the biscuit.
Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev’s OAO National Reserve Bank was recently forced to seize over 40,000 pigs from a customer who had defaulted on a loan of 100m rubles (£2.1m) – and, what is more, had to immediately impose a quarantine on the booty against African swine fever.
Now that’s what you might call more trouble than it’s worth.
MIND GAME
Ever dreamed of a one-to-one with some of the best business minds of their generation? Well, if you’re prepared to pay handsomely for the privilege, you might just get lucky.
Topshop boss Sir Philip Green, WPP mogul Sir Martin Sorrell and Net-a-Porter’s Natalie Massenet are going head to head over the next week against the likes of author Salman Rushdie and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger – in an online auction where they are auctioning off their minds.
That’s right, from today until Sunday, bidding is open for the brains on www.krugmindshare.com, at which point the top three bidders will be invited to join a live auction at Christie’s on 5 November. The competition will undoubtedly be fierce…
TAKING A PUNT
Proof, if it were needed, that City bankers were less than enthused yesterday by shadow chancellor George Osborne’s comments about scrapping cash bonuses at the UK’s retail banks.
Yesterday, the odds on betting site Extrabet of Osborne getting the sack before the next election jumped from 33/1 to 5/1 in a day.
“The punters have been circling this one like shark bait,” I’m told.