A SIGH OF RELIEF FOR FUND GURU DUFFIELD
AFTER months of being down on his luck, perhaps the tide is starting to turn for veteran fund management guru John Duffield and his newest business venture, Brompton Asset Management.
Duffield, who also previously set up Jupiter and New Star, originally named the firm Hyde Park Asset Management, before hedge fund marketing firm Hyde Park Investment enlisted its legal heavies to persuade him to change the moniker to Brompton. The existence of a Canadian investment firm called Brompton Funds Management then came to light and it looked likely another about-turn would be on the cards, after the firm told The Capitalist it would also be talking to its legal counsel about pursuing options to stop Duffield’s use of the name.
Yet fast forward a few weeks, and it looks like Duffield can start printing some fancy new business cards after all.
“There’s nothing doing at this time,” a spokesman for the Canadian firm drawls. “We are considering the implications of the name here in Canada, but for the moment, it’s just something we’d deal with on a day to day basis.”
At the very least, it’ll give Duffield more time to concentrate on a law suit filed by former New Star fund manager Patrick Evershed, who’s currently suing the firm for unfair dismissal.
HOLLOW LEG
It takes a strong man to get back up and dust himself down after a beating, but coming back into the ring for round two? Yet that’s exactly what shadow foreign secretary and former Tory leader William Hague has proved himself game enough to do in the latest edition of GQ, which hits the newsstands tomorrow.
Back in 2000, Hague sparked a media frenzy in his first interview with the magazine, when he told of his teenage years as a driver’s mate, delivering beer to town and villages in South Yorkshire, and admitted he used to regularly sink 14 pints in a day.
But the publicity doesn’t seem to have deterred him: not only has Hague given them another candid interview, but he’s also more than ready to laugh at his original discretionary lapse.
“I get students writing to tell me about having a Hagueathon: they are trying to drink 14 pints, or have a three-legged one where two of them drink seven pints,” Hague tells Spectator editor Matthew d’Ancona. “That is my contribution to the English language. Margaret Thatcher contributed ‘Thatcherism’, all I’ve contributed is the name of a drinking contest.” A mighty fine achievement by City standards, I’m sure.
BEST FOOT FORWARDLOSS IN TRANSLATION
Incidentally, while we’re on the subject of the book, may The Capitalist suggest that in such a volatile climate, it might have been wise to update sections written months ago before the final edition went to print?
Turning to the page on Eric Daniels, who is still hanging on by his fingernails as the chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, I read: “His careful stance helped Lloyds TSB avoid the worst consequences of the sub-prime fallout and to position itself to swallow rival HBOS during the 2008 financial hurricane” – nestled alongside such expressions as “weather the financial storm”, “expand when others were failing” and “position of relative strength”.
It certainly makes for strange reading on the day Lloyds is predicted to report a £5.1bn first half loss after that disastrous takeover, especially given the slew of profits at many of its rivals…