The dastardly Mr Deedes
Bearish hedge funder Crispin Odey’s fund is up for the second month running, gaining 1.8pc thanks to various short bets. After ending last year 50pc down, does the Bunterish old booby sense a change in fortunes? ‘The chances of car crashes everywhere are rising,’ he predicts with glee.
Silver-backed JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon has been reading Sapiens: A Brief History Of Humankind by Israeli academic Yuval Noah Harari. The book’s cover enquires: ‘How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance?’ Funnily enough, some ask the same about Dimon, 61. During his 12 years at JP, he’s endured £10bn in regulatory fines and the ‘London Whale’ scandal. Not even a bout of throat cancer – thankfully in remission – could shake him from his tree.
Befitting his knight of the realm status, foppish John Lewis boss Sir Charlie Mayfield is cut from a different cloth than his High Street peers. Educated at Radley. Sword of Honour from Sandhurst. Ex-Captain in the Scots Guards. You’d never have thought it listening to him being interviewed on Radio 4 yesterday. Not only has his pronunciation of the letter ‘t’ gone walkabout, but on three occasions prefixed his answer with a grating ‘So look’. Pull your socks up, Mayfield.
Stately former HSBC boss Lord Sandberg’s death at the age of 90 was announced to the House of Lords of Monday. His Lordship served as executive chairman of the bank from 1977 to 1986 in Hong Kong, where he lived in considerable style, indulging his unusual passion for horology. His unrivalled collection of 400 timepieces were auctioned in Geneva in 2001 for £10m.
Burberry’s annual general meeting tomorrow is likely to be fiery, with anger over £5.4m worth of shares awarded to boyish creative director Christopher Bailey, despite his disastrous stint as chief executive. Now he’s handed the top job to Italian Marco Gobbetti, 57, Bailey, 46, won’t have to face awkward questions from journalists about his performance. Not that he ever did much when in charge anyway. Business questions usually had to be handled by his chief financial officer.