THE DASTARDLY MR DEEDES
Multi-billion pound investment firm Abu Dhabi Financial Group, which purchased Scotland Yard in 2014 for £370m, is moving to new digs in Mayfair. Whoever scouted the offices might have some explaining to do to its Middle Eastern bosses. A local source chuckles: ‘The building used to be a strip joint called The Wall Street Club. Some of Mary Millington’s grubby 1970s porn films were filmed there.’
Pompous- sounding BlackRock director Ewen Cameron Watt appeared unexcited about Amazon’s proposed ‘smart glasses’ on Radio 4 yesterday. When business editor Dominic O’Connell pointed out that wearing the specs meant you could do your shopping while walking down the street, Cameron Watt replied tartly: ‘Well I’m married so I don’t have that problem, Dominic.’ Good to know high chivalry still flourishes!
Billionaire Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe this week unveiled his plans for a 4x4 off-roader to replace Land Rover’s Defender. He made the announcement at The Grenadier, a poky London pub said to be haunted by an ex- Grenadier guard whose groans emanate from the cellar. There’ll be groans aplenty if gawky Ratcliffe, 64, as he threatens, moves production to Germany.
Barack Obama is raking it in. In the past few weeks, the ex-president has addressed private equity giant Carlyle Group, wealth management firm Northern Trust and is due to give a talk to Cantor Fitzgerald. Each gig is said to earn him £300,000. Barry could learn a thing or two from Jimmy Carter, who, while much lampooned, eschewed the lecture circuit and devoted his post-White House career to worthy causes.
The sheer pointlessness of the annual World Economic Forum is illustrated by next year’s agenda: ‘Strengthening Cooperation in a Fractured World’. Organisers expect 2,500 politicians and bigwigs at January’s event in Davos. If previous years are anything to go by, little will be achieved. Still, this year’s jamboree featured Latino popstar Shakira, so I’ll pop along anyway.
Have you any gossip for our City diary? Email: mrdeedes@dailymail.co.uk