British business put on a
display of blooming health last night at the Chelsea Flower
Show, which has become one of the financial community’s
premier networking events.
The grounds of the Royal Hospital were packed with top executives
discussing deals beside the dahlias, rather than weeping
among the willows.
Not even the throes of the credit crisis could keep Mervyn
King away. The Bank of England Governor was among a glut
of Britain’s top financial brains circulating among
the cultivars last night.
Sir Stuart Rose, set to report on Marks & Spencer’s
full-year results today, compared notes with Lucy Neville-Rolfe,
the Tesco director. Neville-Rolfe, also chairman of Dobbies,
the Tesco-controlled garden centre, congratulated Rose on
his high press profile. “I would pay to stay out of
it,” he insisted.
The heavens stayed mercifully dry, leaving undampened the
enthusiasm of the City’s biggest rainmakers, including
Simon Dingemans of Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch’s
Bob Wigley and Russell Chambers of Credit Suisse.Former
Prime Ministers John Major and Baroness Thatcher were on
show, while Lord Heseltine, owner of one of the biggest
private collections of trees in the UK, was overheard discussing
drainage with a stallholder.
Also seen were former BP chief executive Lord Browne of
Madingley, Terra Firma’s Guy Hands, Permira’s
Martin Clarke, Channel 4 chairman Luke Johnson, Lloyds Bank
chairman Victor Blank, Collins Stewart chair Terry Smith
and Icap chairman Michael Spencer.
Stephen Bennett, shows director at the Royal Horticultural
Society, which organises Chelsea, says that bookings for
corporate entertainment were up 10pc this year and already
sold out for 2009. Tickets for the fashionable gala dinner
can cost up to £700 each and the week-long event raises
£2m for the RHS.
Such was the importance of the event, Lloyds TSB, which
is thought to have spent about £400,000 sponsoring
the gala dinner and creating a show garden this year, took
along its own networking expert to bolster its banking team.
Of course all would have bought their tickets for the gala
night well before the credit crisis really started to bite
– the 5,000 tickets for the evening sold out almost
instantly in September.
He said that while investors have been worried about British
banks' exposure to the US sub-prime market through their
investments in credit derivatives, the real fear now will
be over the bad debts that UK banks could face.
However, Philip Remnant, a senior adviser at Credit Suisse,
which took one of 16 entertainment chalets last night alongside
rivals including Deutsche, Dresdner Kleinwort and Lazard,
says: “Despite tough times I doubt anyone would cancel
– they would be in huge trouble with their wives.”
Wife power has combined with Chelsea’s central London
location and Britain’s passion for gardening to make
the flower show an eclectic meeting spot. |
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