City Insider: Yanis Varoufakis and Lord Lamont make an odd couple

Varoufakis/Lamont: The odd couple

Lord Lamont welcomed his old friend Yanis Varoufakis in London this week. The former chancellor of the exchequer and the now Greek finance minister struck up an unlikely friendship in Australia in 2012, when they appeared on opposing sides of a debate on the eurozone's future.

The Greek economist certainly impressed the hedgies and City types he addressed on Monday night. His two-hour speech received a standing ovation; his flawless English, "more eloquent than practically the entire British Cabinet", said one person who met him. "Not the dogmatic Marxist he's portrayed as."

But not everything went to plan on the visit. Lord Lamont tried to give a breakfast for his friend at the Reform Club, only to find that the perennially tie-less Varoufakis wasn't allowed in. Lord Lamont tells City Insider: "They wouldn't accept that his national dress was not a tie." So they popped around the corner to the less formal Sofitel. Enigmatic Varoufakis never fails to surprise. While he was at the University of Essex, he was secretary of the black students' union.

Ed Balls: A boy named Bill

Ed Balls might have picked a better person to half-forget the name of. The shadow chancellor attracted ridicule this week for his performance on BBC's Newsnight, when he failed to summon the name of any business leader who backed Labour. Other than someone called Bill (no surname supplied). It turned out he meant Bill Thomas, an IT whizz who has at least three claims to fame.

Thomas ran the European operations of EDS at a time when it was making huge gaffes on vast IT contracts, like the botched 2003 systems upgrade at the Inland Revenue. He now holds a number of non-executive positions, including a seat on the board at the accident-prone Co-operative Bank. Oh, and he and his wife are the proud owners of Hopton Hall, a 30-acre estate in Derbyshire. Balls didn't say whether it was the business credentials or the deeply held Labour values that he found the most impressive.

Andrew Davis: Fawlty Towers

Groundhog Day for fallen hotel tycoon Andrew Davis, the one-time owner of Von Essen Hotels. The latest financial statements for Forbury Properties Limited - known until August 2014 as Von Essen Properties Limited - show that it is trying to renew a loan from the Bank of Ireland that expired in July. The results also say that there's material uncertainty about the company's ability to continue as a going concern. Sound familiar? Von Essen Hotels, whose chain included the iconic Cliveden House hotel, went into administration in April 2011 after failing to keep up the interest payments on its debt. Mr Davis sold off the 28 hotels but bought back two sites.

Von Essen's auditor Grant Thornton is currently being sued by Barclays (who lent £250m to the luxury group) for declaring that the company was in good health just months before its collapse. So to whom did Davis turn to audit Fosbury? Grant Thornton, of course. Mr Davis might consider a new vocation. His hotel career has been more Fawlty than Forte.

CRH/Lafarge/Holcim: M&A fee bonanza

When Lafarge and Holcim announced a merger last year, M&A bankers saw dollar signs. The two would need to make several asset disposals (think more fees) to satisfy competition authorities. The golden tickets were secured by Goldman Sachs, who is advising Holcim; and Rothschild and Zaoui & Co, who are advising Lafarge. Last week Irish cement company CRH agreed to buy €6.5bn in assets from Lafarge and Holcim. This was an opportunity for an additional eight banks to join the ticket. The cement industry is being investigated for cartel behaviour and price fixing. Nothing like banking then.

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