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Extel Awards with Megabank’s Alex Masterley prove to be a very animated occasion
It's not very often that an award winner gets his name read out by a cartoon character, but guests at yesterday’s Thomson Reuters Extel Survey Awards (dubbed the City’s Oscars) were treated to that very sight, as Alex Masterley, the fictional co-head of Megabank (and lead character in The Telegraph’s satirical finance cartoon), presented the award for Leading Pan-European Investor Relations Professional.
Vivendi’s Jean-Michel Bonamy’s name was read out by Masterley, who was shown quaffing champers at Ascot, but we’re not too sure how well it went down. “My friend asked me how it felt to have my name read out by a clown,” Bonamy told The Capitalist. As to whether he would join Alex at Megabank as the cartoon suggested, there was a firm “no” from the award winner.
Other than Bonamy, UBS was a big winner on the day (as rightfully predicted by Panmure’s David Buik during the champagne reception), taking Leading Brokerage for Trading & Execution and Leading Brokerage for Equity Sales.
Thomson Reuters' David Craig and UBS' Ed Keen (Source: Thomson Reuters)
JP Morgan took Leading Fund Management Firm and GLG Partners bagged Leading Hedge Fund.
Also decorated was Astrazeneca’s Pascal Soriot, who was voted best chief exec in England, a worthy acknowledgement following his tussle with Pfizer. The Pan European chief award went to Maurice Levy of Publicis Groupe. After the failed Omnicom merger – can you see the running theme there?
Host BBC’s Emily Maitlis (Source: Thomson Reuters)