Hansom: Financial advisers

They heard it on the grapevine

Junior staff at social housing group EPS who logged onto the Building website over the weekend were in for a shock; they discovered they had been bought by facilities management firm Mitie. The City announcement went out late Friday evening, two days after senior management had been told but before anyone thought to tell all of the troops. Oops. One got in touch on Monday to say: “Totally disgusting to read this on the net before the staff were told.” It’s what you might call a rocky start to the marriage.

A man walks into an Irish bar …

Last week’s MAPIC retail conference in Cannes was more Irish charm than French fancy. The Croisette’s well known hotel hotspots including the Majestic and the Martinez were noticeably less busy than in years gone by, and not just thanks to the recession. On Wednesday night the hottest bar in town was the local Irish pub, Morrison’s. The suited and brogued of Cannes revelled among the Celtic paraphernalia with pints of Guinness and, of course, the big screens as everyone piled in to watch the now infamous “hand of Henry” football match: “If you want to make good contacts at MAPIC this year,” said one agent at the bar, “don’t bother with the expensive hotels. Anyone who is anyone is in here. The richest developers and investors in property from India to Russia are in this bar”.

Amy Limehouse

Amy Winehouse has been a regular on the streets of Camden for many years. Wide eyed and tattooed, the singer-songwriter has been falling out of north London bars for much of the last decade. But following stints in rehab and the Caribbean, the newly clean (and allegedly newly enhanced) star may be about to make yet another move. Rumour has it that she has bought a flat just next to the Olympic stadium. I wonder who will make up her new Stratford-slebs party posse? David Higgins and regular site visitor BoJo? Watching that mismatched trio hitting the boozers of Poplar would be a spectator sport all of its own. Or maybe I am not giving her enough credit. With Stratford set to become a tasty investment opportunity, perhaps the young Miss W has more of a business brain under that beehive than commonly believed.

How not to win friends …

The RICS’ efforts to foster the goodwill of its membership have been – well, a little strained of late. The surveyor’s institution is poised to quit the Construction Industry Council and at the same time its council is embroiled in a civil war over plans to change its constitution. Meanwhile, the profession continues to be battered by the worst recession in living memory. So we can only imagine the response of its members when it announced this week that it had done a deal with St James’s Place Wealth Management, under which RICS members can enjoy a “bespoke wealth management service”, including “preserving and building up capital” and “planning for a successful retirement”… Form an orderly queue, now.

The uncommon cold

Pity the poor architects. Just when they are in need of entrepreneurial advice it is snatched cruelly from them. David Kelly, business guru and chief of Mydeco.com, was raring to give the keynote speech at the annual RIBA small practice event, Guerrilla Tactics. But Kelly, who was in charge of eBay’s European HQ in Switzerland and head of global operations at Lastminute.com, was apparently left out of the proceedings when a much-harassed organiser introduced the panel discussion that was to have followed his speech before he had actually delivered it. By the time the discussion had finished, Kelly had run out of time and left for another appointment. Asked why he hadn’t been able to give his speech, the organisers claimed that he had come down with a cold. Odd, because he appeared to be a picture of health just minutes before the sudden bill change.