City bankers in move to Dean St
WE’VE had the move from the City to Canary Wharf and then to Mayfair, where many stockbroking companies and hedgies have located themselves.
But from 1 June, two former Merrill Lynch corporate financiers, now housed at the boutique Global Leisure Partners, will be plying their trade from Dean Street, Soho, an altogether more bohemian place to hang out.
Mervyn Metcalf, one of the founders of Dean Street Advisers, says he hopes the move will encourage investment banking “with a twist”.
“There’s lots of cultural and political history in Soho which we hope we can combine with some of the values of the old British merchant banks like Schroders and Morgan Grenfell,” he says.
Metcalf, an active collector of contemporary US and British art, is teaming up with his colleague at Global Leisure Graeme Atkinson to start the new venture.
It is being funded initially through the partners’ own resources and will work closely with Global Leisure on complimentary deals.
While at Global, Metcalf has been busy on several transactions including the CVC bid for Virgin Active, the BetFred bid for the Tote and more recently the Teachers offer for Goals Soccer.
At the new firm he hopes to extend the breadth of his sector coverage to include health and business services.
“I would like to hope that people hire you for your insight and advice as well as sectoral knowledge rather your sectoral knowledge alone.”
Roll up, roll up! Like the sound of £130,000 for three days work a week? Want the financial world hanging on your every word? Why not apply to be the next external member of the MPC? The right candidate needs to be an economist of the finest pedigree, with “the technical expertise” to make “independent monetary policy decisions.” But don’t worry too much about the requirement to “meet the inflation target” – it’s in the brief for the job but chancellor George Osborne hasn’t so far shown much sign of being tough with the miscreants who have allowed inflation to consistently remain above target.