Welcome to Capital Confidential — a weekly diary column featuring the best tidbits from around the U.K.’s business and political landscape from MarketWatch sister publication Financial News.
This week: Salma Hayek: hedge fund manager, Goldman rounds up bankers to abseil for charity and more Brexit-induced boredom…
Hayek’s hedge
The Hummingbird Project, a new movie about high-frequency trading, hits UK cinemas this summer, having been a critical hit in the US. Jesse Eisenberg, Alexander Skarsgård and Salma Hayek play hedge funders competing over the building of a fibre-optic cable line between the East Coast and Midwest of America.
Capital’s movie spy reports the character of hedge fund boss Eva Torres, played by Mexican-American actress Hayek, was originally written as a male part before producers opted for more on-screen diversity. The source adds: “An added bonus of Salma Hayek’s involvement was that since she is now a London resident, it became easier to classify the movie as a Canadian-European production which did wonders for the budget.”
The Economist closes door on Danny Baker
The fallout from broadcaster Danny Baker’s controversial royal baby tweet has extended to The Economist and BBC presenter Gary Lineker. Baker was fired by the BBC from his Radio 5 Live football show for tweeting an old picture of a couple with a chimpanzee captioned, “Royal baby leaves hospital”, after the birth of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s son Archie.
Many accused Baker of racism and police investigated the incident before taking no action. But Capital can reveal The Economist, which had been the main sponsor of Baker and Lineker’s Behind Closed Doors weekly podcast, has taken action. The magazine has cut ties with Behind Closed Doors, which became the UK’s most-listened-to podcast after it debuted last autumn and even spawned a live show featuring the pair. At the start of each podcast Lineker would plug The Economist as its “new sponsor” and talk up its football content. The magazine paid an undisclosed sum to Goalhanger Films, Lineker’s production company, in return.
A spokesperson for The Economist confirmed the news: “The Economist has discontinued its advertising on the Behind Closed Doors podcast.” The Economist’s messages have been replaced by ads for Harry’s razors on episodes of Behind Closed Doors, while new recordings are on temporary hiatus. An Economist editorial source expresses relief the magazine will not be associated with the podcast upon its return. “It was always a strange fit,” he says. “On one of the podcasts Baker even said finance stories were the only type of news he didn’t pay any attention to.”
No experience
The initial public offering prospectus report for Arabian Centres, the Saudi Arabian mall operator, has landed on Capital’s desk. It is Saudi Arabia’s largest IPO since 2014. But our eyes lit up at this statement in the report: “The senior executives have limited or no experience in managing a public listed joint stock company in the Kingdom and complying with the laws and regulations pertaining to such companies.” What could go wrong?
Goldman hits new heights
The sight of financiers from the City’s biggest banks descending down steep cliffs has doubtless been played out on social media. But hats off to Goldman Sachs’ head of equity capital markets Richard Cormack, who has rounded up over 20 ECM heads from all the major banks for a charity abseil in July, raising funds for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity to build a new cancer centre.
The banking abseilers include Goldman’s Christoph Stanger, Morgan Stanley’s Martin Thorneycroft, Credit Suisse’s Stephane Gruffat, Lazard’s Charlie Foreman and Citigroup’s Michael Lavelle and James Fleming. Lavelle, who heads Citi’s investment banking division also climbed Everest last year. Is he the Bear Grylls of banking?
Cluff trade
Colourful North Sea oil pioneer Algy Cluff has just announced his retirement as chairman of Cluff Natural Resources, the company he founded over 40 years ago. Cluff, 78, will now focus on his writing career and charitable work. At the launch of his latest tome By the Way at Hatchards, Capital asked Cluff for some business advice.
“You can’t teach being an entrepreneur, it’s like a sense of humour – you either have it or you don’t,” he replied. “But you need to go sailing on, like Mrs May, regardless what the problems are and no matter how bad the news is.” Meanwhile for fellow guest former Tory chancellor Norman Lamont the European elections are bad news. “I think the Brexit party are going to do well, unfortunately,” said the Brexiteer, who is not fond of Nigel Farage. “It’s going to be difficult to stop them.”
Brexit ‘fairly boring’
Is the City suffering from Brexit fatigue? John Chatfeild-Roberts, Jupiter’s renowned funds buyer, believes so. Having just returned from a UK Jupiter Merlin Portfolio roadshow, Chatfeild-Roberts told the Jupiter Breakfast Club at The Delaunay: “We didn’t really talk about Brexit, almost at all.
“Essentially we — the investing world — have worked out that life goes on… I used to be vaguely interested in it but I’ve stopped reading about it because it’s just fairly boring and you hope that somebody might sort something out at some stage in the future. The rest of us are just getting on with stuff.” Far more exciting for Chatfeild-Roberts, who wrote 2006 cult investment book Fundology, is the stand-off between Trump versus China. “Is that the new cold war? I think it might be,” he said.
PRs under fire
High-flying PR execs congregated at 6 Agar Street last week for a conference titled “The Influence of Influence” to talk about… influence. Turns out the most powerful influencer at the conference, organised by PRmoment Events, was the humble fire alarm. Entertainment PR supremo James Herring was about to give his presentation on “the ultimate guide to the worst influencer campaigns ever” when the alarm sounded and attendees spilled onto the Strand. The drill went on for 15 minutes before guests returned inside, according to our attendee. At least these influencers will have more idea what they are talking about when they next utter the “shouting fire in a crowded theatre” cliché.
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