Fans call for Oprah to run for president
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Minutes after giving a rousing speech at the Golden Globes Awards that promised “a new day” for women, minorities and the downtrodden, Oprah Winfrey said she has no ambitions to run for president.
In a brief interview backstage at the event, Winfrey was told that “Oprah 2020” was circulating on Twitter, and asked whether she planned to run. “I don’t – I don’t,” the 63-year-old billionaire said.
The drumbeat was well under way. “Oprah. 2020”, said Shaun King, the Black Lives Matter activist. The host of the Golden Globes, late-night comedian Seth Meyers, jokingly urged Ms Winfrey to run in his opening, noting that Mr Trump had reportedly decided make his bid for the office after he was the butt of Meyers’s jokes at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011.
Ms Winfrey, worth $3.6bn according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, made references to the sexual harassment scandal in Hollywood and marked the recent death of Recy Taylor, whose sexual assault in 1944 became a focal point for civil rights activists, in her speech to accept the Cecil B DeMille award for lifetime achievement.
Even with Ms Winfrey’s denial, the speculation is likely to continue. “It’s up to the people,” Ms Winfrey’s longtime partner, Stedman Graham, told the Los Angeles Times.
“She would absolutely do it.”
RICHARD FAIRBANK
Richard Fairbank spent three decades building Capital One Financial Corporation into a credit-card powerhouse, using catchy television ads with celebrities asking viewers “What’s in your wallet?” Today, there is more than $1bn in his after shares in the company, which rose dramatically fuelled by a stronger economic outlook and corporate tax cuts.
Mr Fairbank, 67, among the longest-serving bank chief executives in the Unitd States, has reaped about $500m from share sales and cash compensation since 2004. His net worth, including current equity holdings, is about $1.1bn, according to the Bloomberg index. The stock has returned more than 2,200 per cent since its 1994 initial public offering, including reinvested dividends, compared with about 650 per cent for the S&P 500 Financials Index. Capital One, the third-biggest US credit-card lender, stands to benefit along with competitors including Discover Financial Services as president Donald Trump eased financial regulations and signed legislation that cut the corporate tax rate to 21 per cent from 35 per cent. “The best is yet to come” for US banks, Gerard Cassidy, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note to clients last month. “There is the potential for the industry to experience higher profitability and earnings growth against a backdrop of improved economic conditions, continued strong credit quality, a more constructive regulatory environment and further increases in interest rates.”
Mr Fairbank and Nigel Morris, his colleague at a Washington-area consulting firm, started tinkering with new ways of parsing data to assess credit card risk in the 1980s. They were hired in 1988 by Signet Bank, where they pioneered concepts such as tailored interest rates and created offers that enticed borrowers to transfer balances from other cards.
The business prospered and Signet spun off Capital One in the 1994 IPO, making Mr Fairbank the chief executive. The company, based in McLean, Virginia, is now the seventh-biggest commercial bank by assets in the US. The firm also targets subprime borrowers, a fee-rich business that helped Mr Fairbank double annual profit since 2005 to $3.75bn in 2016. While Mr Fairbank does not collect a salary, over the past three years he has averaged more than $18m in cash bonuses and stock and options awards from Capital One, according to the Bloomberg Pay Index.
UDAY KOTAK
The family of Uday Kotak, billionaire managing director of India’s Kotak Mahindra Bank, is setting up an office to invest in assets including private equity, stocks and real estate worldwide.
“The funds will be deployed in asset classes other than debt and cryptocurrencies,” Venkat Subramanian, who will manage the family office, said in an interview. “We will also stay clear of any investment opportunities that will bring us in direct competition with the bank.”
While Mr Subramanian did not disclose a figure, Mr Kotak has about US$1.2 billion in cash and investable assets, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Most of the money was raised when he cut his stake in the bank to meet regulatory requirements.
The Mumbai-based banker, whose $10.3bn fortune makes him the eighth-richest person in India and the wealthiest banker in Asia, held about 30 per cent in Kotak Mahindra
Bank as of end-September, which is worth $9bn based on current prices. That is down from 33.6 per cent in December 2016, a little before the Reserve Bank of India directed the company to gradually reduce the founders’ stake to 15 per cent by March 2020 in line with guidelines for bank licenses.
Mr Kotak started out in finance in 1985 by setting up an investment firm with a 3 million rupee ($50,000) loan from family and friends. Today he controls India’s fourth-largest private-sector lender by assets.
Mr Subramanian, who is currently chief executive at Infina Finance, a $470m longshort fund that has Kotak and his bank as sole investors, is working with members of Kotak’s family to put in place a team. Kotak had not set up a family office so far as most of his wealth was locked in the bank’s equity until March 2017. Investing in debt would bring the family office into direct competition with the bank, while purchases of bitcoin may prove to be risky, Mr Subramanian said. The world’s largest cryptocurrency has tumbled more than 20 per cent from a mid-December high.
“While the concept of cryptocurrency is alluring, as its value cannot be influenced by any government, the family office will not look at investing in it,” Mr Subramanian said. He also flagged possible regulatory clampdowns and the addition of new global cryptocurrencies as risks to value.
RICHARD BRANSON
Virgin Trains and the Daily Mail are sparring in Britain after the rail operator said it had stopped stocking the newspaper on its west coast trains amid concern it was “not compatible” with the company’s brand.
An internal memo in November took issue with the newspaper’s “editorial position on issues such as immigration, LGBT rights and unemployment”. The memo said that while thousands read the Daily Mail, “they will no longer be reading it courtesy of (Virgin Trains)”. “When we stocked the Daily Mail onboard, we sold one copy for every four trains,” Virgin said.
The newspaper, which has been critical of Virgin founder and billionaire Richard Branson and ever-increasing rail fares in Britain, shot back, suggesting there was more to it than that. It called the decision “disgraceful,” and argued that Virgin was “censoring” the choice of newspapers “for political reasons”.
The newspaper said it had been told Virgin was restricting sales to just three titles to save space, but says it’s “no coincidence that all those titles, like Virgin owner Sir Richard Branson,” favour remaining in the European Union.