Charlotte Hogg was seen as a breath of fresh air during her two-week reign as deputy governor of the Bank of England. Even George Osborne found time between jobs to tweet his support when the 46-year-old resigned following her failure to disclose that her brother worked for Barclays.
Quite an oversight, but some at Threadneedle Street felt that Hogg was harshly treated. What better way to send her on her way than a lavish leaving party? After all, the Bank has splashed out before. It spent £21,000 on leaving gifts and parties for just four top officials last year, including Andrew Bailey, another former deputy. But, as a freedom of information request reveals, Hogg was not thrown a party and did not receive a gift.
A mole at the Bank tells me Hogg was offered a leaving bash, but declined. Can you blame her?
Rewriting GMG’s Auto Trader deal
The AA acted swiftly to expunge its former boss from its annals after giving him the sack last week. In a matter of minutes, Bob Mackenzie’s profile disappeared from the AA’s website.
Eagle-eyed investors in the breakdown service are sure to spot another flagrant attempt to rewrite history on the site. One independent director, Andrew Miller, is credited with a miraculous repair job on Guardian Media Group, which he ran from 2010 to 2015.
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Miller, the AA’s site proclaims, “reshaped” the publisher, overseeing its “transformation into one of the world’s leading digital organisations”. Hmm. All well and good, but GMG’s ever-debatable rude health then took a turn for the worse. Over the past two years it has made underlying losses of more than £110m.
The paper’s prospects might be brighter had Miller, 51, not done a certain deal with buyout giant Apax, GMG’s erstwhile partner in Auto Trader. In 2014, the Scot sold The Guardian’s 50.1% stake in the used-car website in a deal valuing the company at £1.75bn. These days Auto Trader, now listed on the stock exchange, is worth £3.6bn. Never knowingly frugal with its resources, GMG paid Miller a £1.4m bonus.
Beware the Soriot effect
What’s the opposite of the Midas touch? Whatever it is, Astra Zeneca boss Pascal Soriot could be said to possess it in abundance.
The suspiciously dark-haired Frenchman, 58, has had a tough month. One of the pharma giant’s key drug trials failed, sending its shares down more than 10%. Also, Soriot was subject to rumours that he was jumping ship for Teva, an Israeli rival. The story was eventually quashed, but the mere spectre of Soriot left its mark: Teva dropped 18% last Thursday after announcing a $6bn (£4.6bn) loss. Forget gold; it seems anything Soriot touches turns into a plummeting share price.
Just saying . . .
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“Monetary policy cannot prevent the weaker real income growth likely [with] the move to new EU trading arrangements”
— Mark Carney warns the Bank of England will be powerless to stop some of the fallout from Brexit
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