JAMES MURDOCH PUT ON HOLD BY BROOKS’S GENTLEMEN’S CLUB
BROOKS’S in Mayfair is one of the oldest and most reputable gentlemen’s clubs in the country, founded in 1764 by four Dukes and with a cast list of former members that includes William Pitt the Younger and Lionel de Rothschild.
As you can imagine, joining the ranks of the exclusive all-male preserve is not straightforward. First, would-be members must be proposed by a member and seconded by another, then ten more members must sign to agree to their inclusion.
Next, the secretary and the club managers hold a “scrutiny meeting” to remove any undesirables; finally, the candidate is put to the vote among the 1,400 members in an old-fashioned ballot. All in all, says The Capitalist’s man at the bridge table, the process takes about two years.
So it is unfortunate for News Corp heir James Murdoch – who was first put forward to the club bearing the name of his father’s favourite red-top two years ago – that the final stages of his membership application coincide with the phone hacking episode.
Hardly fitting behaviour for the gentlemen “of the highest social order” favoured by the establishment, which at the time of writing had still not taken forward Murdoch junior’s request. “[James] was put up for membership two years ago, and he is not a member now,” confirmed a Sky spokesperson. Whatever could the matter be?
TWO BECOME ONE
DEBATE has been raging over which company’s name should live on following the merger of Evercore Partners and Lexicon Partners.
Lexicon is better-known in London, argued one camp, but Evercore is bigger in the US, said the other, which finally won the day as The Capitalist hears the merged firm will be known simply as Evercore.
Combining the two names together was never an option though. Because, as Evercore’s quick-witted president and chief executive Ralph Schlosstein (right) reportedly pointed out, the new banking superpower would have been known as “Evercon”.
DUNKIRK SPIRIT
THERE have only been three occasions in the last three years when IG Group has bought pizza to sustain its entire dealing floor as the markets took over.
Once after the 2010 US election “flash crash”, once in the darkest days of October 2008, and once last Friday, after the US was downgraded by ratings agency S&P against a backdrop of Italian and Spanish debt, sending global markets into freefall.
The Capitalist hears the empty pizza boxes stretched “halfway to the ceiling” as the traders worked late into the night to reassure clients. And, in keeping with the Dunkirk spirit, the spreadbetter didn’t cancel its regular first Friday of the month drinks as the markets went into meltdown – it simply extended them “later than usual”. Cheers!
SOCIAL NETWORK
GREEN’S Restaurant & Oyster Bar on Cornhill was the venue for the quarterly dinner for the City’s leading women’s networking society, The Network of Networks.
Co-ordinated by Vanessa Vallely, the founder of WeAreTheCity.com, “network heads” including Birgit Neu, co-founder of Women on the Wharf; Smarter Networking founder Heather White; and Lady Val Corbett, head of The Professional Women’s Network; shared “experience and ideas” about how they can help women progress to board positions in the City.
“We are all very keen to involve and progress our younger generations of female talent, and we hope this will go some way towards building the future pipeline of senior and successful women of the future,” said Vallely.
SMOKING CLUB
CIGARS, cocktails and canapes – what’s not to like? That was the thinking behind tonight’s launch of the first-ever such evening at Boisdale in Canary Wharf, where City guests can enjoy a smoke and a Louis Latour wine-tasting followed by a two-course dinner.
Just one catch – it’s ladies only. To book your place at £65 per person, please contact organiser Lalla Kaur on 07899 931233.