The Soho House Awards last week marked 20 years of the members’ club opening in New York. An eclectic crew of celebs — including Oscar Isaac in a kilt — turned out for the do at Dumbo House, near the Brooklyn Bridge.
Winners included Paul Mescal, the Normal People star, who picked up actor of the year, and Ayo Edebiri, of The Bear, who took home the breakthrough actress prize.
But the “breakthrough entrepreneur” award went to Harry Potter star Emma Watson and her brother Alex, for their gin brand Renais. With everyone from Ryan Reynolds to Margot Robbie getting into the gin business, it’s a brave Hollywood star who doesn’t come with a distillery attached these days.
The accolade is made even more impressive by the fact that the Watsons appear to have launched their business less than six months ago. Quite the conjuring trick.
Closer inspection reveals that Emma is not even a director of the company at Companies House. As of March this year, Renais had a healthy cash balance but stocks worth just £367.
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Still, Prufrock has no doubt Soho House made the right call here — Diageo is sure to buy Renais for about a billion quid in six months’ time. Watch this space.
Unlikely pair of spinners
City PR supremo Roland Rudd popped up in the DJ box of the Hi nightclub in Ibiza last week, for a social media selfie opportunity with Greek superstar DJ Argy. It’s a long way from Rudd’s Strand haunts — where his Finsbury outfit, now called FGS Global, is based.
Prufrock is, of course, fully versed in all of Mr Argy’s work, but what was Rudd up to? Perhaps, after spinning for his clients, he wants to spin some decks instead? After all, David Solomon, aka DJ D-Sol, has shown it’s possible to juggle a career in the night-time economy with a day job running Goldman Sachs. This Argy fellow may have competition.
Career ends in mayhem
To the Sir John Soane Museum to mark the retirement of fund manager Richard Buxton. The venue was chosen because the outspoken stock picker recalls preparing for the start of his career on September 7, 1985, by sitting on a bench outside the Bank of England, whose first building was designed by Soane.
In addition to writing a book, Buxton has another gig lined up. He is guest conducting a dress rehearsal of English National Opera’s Iolanthe on October 3, an appearance bought at a fundraising auction by his wife. “The more of you who buy tickets will only ever increase the pressure on me not to f*** up,” he told his guests. Equally, though, it will raise funds for the opera.
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A review of the show bills it as “glorious night of mayhem, madness and misunderstandings”.
Sounds like the start of a busy retirement.
Not yet fully charged
Darren Jones MP may have exited the business select committee for Labour’s frontbench last week but its work goes on. This week it will hear evidence about Britain’s failure to secure a car battery “gigafactory”.
But what about the company trying to kick-start a project in Northumberland? Prufrock understands that Recharge Industries, the Aussie outfit led by ex-PwC man David Collard, who is under investigation at home for failing to pay his staff’s wages, had been due to appear before the committee.
It’s thought Collard and his crew didn’t want to show up while a deal to buy the assets of the collapsed Britishvolt drags on. To wit: he still needs to pay the £8.6 million to actually buy the land.
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• It’s been a bruising few years for Russian billionaire Denis Sverdlov, who has seen his wealth dwindle as shares in his electric van start-up Arrival cratered. Despite spending vast sums, the Banbury-based outfit has failed to produce a vehicle and its market value has plunged from $13 billion to just $23 million.
Last month it secured stop-gap financing from an unnamed lender. Now filings at Companies House reveal it has put up pretty much every item it owns as collateral against the loan: from patents and web domains to desks, chairs, the oven in its kitchen, the blinds on its windows and even the staff smoking shelter. Let’s hope Sverdlov hasn’t left a sandwich in his drawer — or they’ll have that, too.
Just saying . . .
I think it’s a mistake to put all the eggs in the basket of ‘net zero’ for the UK. And it’s particularly a mistake to ask a business to have a ‘net zero’
Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King weighs in on climate change targets for individual firms
Funny business
