HORLICK PLANS SECOND PUSH INTO FILM INVESTMENT AT BRAMDEAN
CITY superwoman Nicola Horlick has been keeping herself to herself of late, but she came out yesterday guns blazing to deny scurrilous rumours that her firm, Bramdean Asset Management, is on the block.
“Bramdean is not for sale,” she insists, before launching into a tirade against idle gossipers.
Horlick – who earlier this year was involved in a bruising spat with property tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz over Bramdean Alternatives, the listed fund she manages – added that it is currently “a great time to be exploring new ideas and opportunities” in the fund management sector, such as an expansion of her foray into film music investment.
Last year, Horlick set up the Resonant Music Fund to acquire the rights to original film music scores, generating a revenue stream from the use of the music for television screenings, commercial purposes and soundtracks.
The fund has so far financed about 60 or 70 film scores, including horror flick Orphan, starring Leonardo Di Caprio, and White Out, with Kate Beckinsale.
“We expect to make a return of around three times our initial capital within six or seven years, but there is no leverage so it’s a very safe return,” Horlick tells me. “The fund will be fully drawn at between 150 and 200 films, and we are now planning a second Resonant fund for next year…”
It’s far glitzier than investing in index-linked gilts, that’s for sure.
FRESH FACED
The trials and tribulations of the past 18 months would have taken their toll on even the most fresh-faced of business grandees, and the chief executives of Wall Street’s finest are no exception. The Stateside Cityfile blog has been consulting with Dr Anthony Youn, one of the country’s finest plastic surgeons, to find out which procedures these banking titans might want to consider in the future if they want to remain looking their best – and the answers might well surprise some people.
Morgan Stanley chief executive John Mack could benefit from a rhinoplasty to thin and straighten his nose when he steps down next year; ex-Lehman Brothers chief Dick Fuld needs Botox for his deep frown lines and a hair transplant to fill his thinning locks; while Vikram Pandit, who leads Citigroup, could do with a lower facelift to tighten his saggy jawline.
Amazingly, the boss Youn reckons could benefit from the most work is chic Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein – who could apparently benefit from extensive hair transplants, a lower facelift, Botox and an upper blepharoplasty (to remove excess skin from his eyelids, for the less medically au fait among you), all for the not inconsiderable cost of $34,500.
If even those steering the best-prepared ship on the sea can’t avoid the dreaded stress lines, what hope is there for the rest of us?
STUFF OF DREAMS
Barclays Wealth employees Sarah Smith and Laura Ridler are currently engaged in a last-minute whirl of preparation before embarking on “the holiday of a lifetime sponsored by the bank”, I hear.
But before taxpayers start getting uppity about UK banks indirectly spending their hard-earned cash, this trip is strictly for a good cause – the girls will form part of a team of 30 people travelling to support terminally-ill children going on a dream holiday to Florida. The charity organising the trip is Caudwell Children – founded by mobile phone tycoon John Caudwell, who earned his pennies by setting up phone shop chain Phones4U.
MOVIE STAR
Much excitement at the offices of Royal Bank of Canada in New York yesterday as a casting director appeared to “audition” employees for extra parts in the new Wall Street 2 movie. Apparently several scenes from the film will be shot on the trading floor at the bank, and 80 lucky guys ‘n’ gals will get the chance to make a cameo appearance…
ROMANTIC TRYST
Juicy details of a love affair between Aviva chief executive Andrew Moss and a junior colleague had the City foaming at the mouth yesterday after the insurer’s chairman Lord Sharman was forced to speak up in his defence.
Sharman said Moss (pictured below) was “very open” about the incident and there had been “no breach of company rules”, adding: “He retains my full confidence.”
Moss had the affair with Deirdre Moffat, until recently head of HR for Aviva Investors, who was herself – in a particularly intriguing twist – married to Andrew Moffat, the head of HR for Aviva in Europe.
Not that the City isn’t well used to romantic intricacies, mind: back in 2002, a National Grid shareholder stood up at a firm meeting and revealed then-chief Roger Urwin had pursued an affair with his ex-wife. Four years on, chairman Sir John Parker heralded Urwin on his retirement as having “delivered an outstanding track record of success”.Well, quite.