BANK BOSS DIMON HIT BY HOUSE PRICE WOES
LIFE sucks if you’re the boss of one of the world’s largest banks in the wake of the crisis – not only are you required to defend your dwindling pay package and parry stinging verbal attacks from politicians on an almost daily basis, but you’re also cursed with ill luck in the real estate arena.
The latest of the bank honchos having to offload prime swathes of property for a pittance is JP Morgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon, who first put his Chicago Gold Coast home on the market a couple of years back for $13.5m (£8.74m).
Despite the impressive array of attributes to the property – it boasts a sizeable rooftop terrace, state of the art gym, eight bedrooms, 11 bathrooms (do the pets have their own washing facilities too, we wonder?), a wine vault and media room – it lingered on the estate agent’s books, dropping to just $9.5m earlier this year.
Now, that asking price has diminished yet further, to a relatively piddling $6.95m. Ouch.
Still, at least Dimon can seek comfort from his peers. Goldman Sachs boss Lloyd Blankfein, of course, offloaded his own five-bedroom duplex apartment on Park Avenue just last month for around $12m – a hefty cut from the original price tag of $15m.
BRUNCH DATE
To Boisdale of Belgravia yesterday for a cheeky brunch – the first of many, The Capitalist hopes, as the restaurant has this week started opening its doors to the braying public on a Sunday.
Guests at the launch ranged from the likes of Bill Martin – Scottish songwriter to the likes of Elvis (right), the Bay City Rollers and Cliff Richard – to Tory MP Mark Field, looking tanned after spending the bulk of the parliamentary summer recess at his holiday home in Majorca. “It’s going to be a bit of a culture shock,” he chuckled at the thought of returning to sit in Westminster today.
KICK START
Competitive financial workers over in Canary Wharf will have a new way to let off steam this week, as the Rugby Football Union (RFU) brings its Touch Rugby Corporate Challenge to the Docklands.
Anyone can put together a team of four people for the event, which will be held in Canada Square Park and consist of quick-fire matches lasting five minutes each way, starting at 11am and running through until 8pm. Teams can register at touchinthecity@therfu.com – though there’s got to be a lady on the pitch for each team at any one time, and there’ll be no tackling, scrum, mauling, line-outs or kicking, for the more hardcore beefcakes out there.
STAR OF THE STAGE
A snippet of advice for the business leaders of the City, courtesy of recruiter FiveTen’s marketing guru Adam Nicoll.
Nicoll tells me his passion outside of recruitment is for amateur drama, having signed up to a theatre company a few years ago. Since then, he’s played roles as diverse as Toad in The Wind in the Willows, Henry VIII in A Man For All Seasons and (his latest outing) the gay German officer in ‘Allo ‘Allo. Apparently, “nothing else comes close” to treading the boards in teaching you the teamwork and presentation skills needed to become a successful business leader. Hop to it, folks.