City profiles

Neil Woodford It has been a “cruel summer” for investment guru Neil Woodford, says Patrick Hosking in The Times. “Nothing seems to have gone right for Britain’s foremost stock-picker, and some of his less loyal fans are starting to wobble” – a startling turn of events for a fund manager “habituated to plaudits and adulation”. In recent weeks, a string of pet Woodford stocks – ranging from Astrazeneca to the lender Provident Financial – have taken heavy hits, which have dramatically affected the performance of his eponymous funds. Plenty of top fund managers have stumbled and then come good, and investors will give Woodford more time. “But in the back of their minds lurks an unpalatable niggle. Sometimes even the most brilliant fund managers just don’t get their mojo back.”

Dara Khosrowshahi

“Uber’s capacity to surprise has taken a turn for the better,” says Una Galani on Reuters Breakingviews. After a long search to replace its controversial CEO, Travis Kalanick and end “the era of avoidable PR disasters”, the taxi giant has hit gold with Expedia boss Khosrowshahi. His background certainly “bodes well for cultural sensitivity”. An IranianAmerican who left Tehran as a child on the eve of the 1979 revolution, Khosrowshahi, 48, has chalked up an impressive 93% approval rating among employees at Expedia. And he gets results. The 760% total shareholder return he has delivered over 12 years at the travel firm “will be music to the ears” of loss-making Uber’s large investors, who have staked their reputations on the firm.