The dastardly Mr Deedes

A Linklaters report into Deutsche Boerse’s failed £21bn takeover of the London Stock Exchange reveals the key figures involved were initially given spy thriller-style code names. The deal was referred to as ‘Luna’, George Osborne was known as ‘Uncle Georg’, while LSE boss Xavier Rolet was ‘Imker’ – German for beekeeper – which I suspect was coined as a mirthful dig. Cultivated Xavier, 57, is never happier than tending to his hives on his 350acre Provencal estate.

Spain’s Pablo Isla, the neatly-coiffed boss of Inditex (parent company of Spanish fashion giant Zara), has been named the world’s best performing chief executive by the Harvard Business Review. In second place was WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell, 72, whose ludicrous £48m annual remuneration is over five times that of Pablo’s £8.9m take-home. Food for thought for the WPP board, methinks.

Billionaire media mogul Michael Bloomberg, 75, cut the ribbon on his new City offices yesterday alongside London Mayor Sadiq Khan, of whom Bloomberg jokily remarked: ‘I asked some of the police outside what they thought of Sadiq and they said he seemed a pretty good guy. But then he is the one paying them.’ Bouncy Sadiq, 47, chuckled along obligingly. He’ll endure any ribbing so long as a photo-op’s involved.

Congratulations to elegant fund manager and City superwoman Dame Helena Morrissey who’s to be a grandmother for the first time after her eldest daughter, fledgling pop warbler Flo, announced she’s having a baby. The first of many for dainty Flo, 22, I hope. Of course, Dame Helena, 50, managed nine.

Sharp-elbowed environment secretary Angela Leadsom has apparently told friends she wants to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, a bold ambition since many predict the ex-Barclays director, 54, to be on her way out. Britain is yet to have a female Chancellor, of course. Margaret Thatcher originally set her sights on becoming the first, but events meant she had to settle for the office of the Prime Minister instead.