City profiles

Alex Chesterman

When Alex Chesterman’s wife said no to more children after their second, the entrepreneur matched the decision “by calling it a day” on new companies, says Daniel Thomas in the FT. The Londoner had, after all, already formed two “successful but timeconsuming businesses” – the property website Zoopla, and the DVD rental service Lovefilm. “That pledge was quickly broken” and the result was Cazoo – the online used car dealer which has just revealed plans to list on Wall Street, via a Spac, valued at $7bn. The deal is Chesterman’s “biggest yet” and the highest initial listing value of any UK company on the New York Stock Exchange. “I think this is probably my last one,” he says. “But I have been caught saying that before.”

Shaquille O’Neal

“Athletes have a history of being roped into lousy investments,” said Laura Forman in The Wall Street Journal. “Dude, where’s my money?” is a frequent lament. But the former basketball star and rapper “Shaq” O’Neal’s first big investment – a stake in Google before it went public – was highly successful. Now he’s leading the charge into the blank-cheque companies (aka Spacs) currently overrunning Wall Street. O’Neal is “a strategic adviser” for a listed shell preparing to merge with the fitness business Beachbody Co. in a deal valuing it at $3bn. “The hoops great” isn’t alone – at least 61 sports-related Spacs have formed so far this year, many endorsed by athletes with huge followings. “Spac celeb betting” is “a crapshoot”. No wonder regulators are getting jumpy.