City Insider: Salmond's hedge fund lunch

Alex Salmond: Hedging his bets

Alex Salmond has been fraternising with London's hedge fund and asset management community. The unlikely union took place at a sit-down lunch last week organised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch at the trendy London Edition Hotel. "Not very SNP," said one guest. Salmond appeared clutching his new book The Dream Will Never Die: 100 Days that Changed Scotland Forever. (He was clearly undeterred by former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown's description of the book as "the longest exercise in literary masturbation since politics began".) The former party leader batted off any difficult questions from the audience with a deft "that's not for me to decide". But one thing wasn't left for current SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon to decide: there would be no coalition with the Conservative party, he said. Salmond told the lunch guests that a referendum on Scotland's place in the UK was a "once in a generation opportunity". He then corrected himself. The referendum was a "once in a political generation opportunity". Both Salmond and the fund managers weighed up one another with mutual amusement. "He was more amused than us," said one financier who attended: "Deep down he knows he's going to come down here and screw us."

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Rory Cullinan: Internal bust up

There was much scratching of heads among City bankers this week over Rory Cullinan's sudden departure from Royal Bank of Scotland. The taxpayer-controlled bank said little about what caused the exit of the man known to some colleagues as its "run-off ninja" for the swift work he made of winding down toxic assets in its bad bank. One person who knows the Scottish-born banker says he has a "high maintenance personality" that clashed with the no-nonsense approach of Ewen Stephenson, the Kiwi finance director who recently arrived from Credit Suisse. "His approach is very much my way or the highway," says the acquaintance. This seems to have served him well as head of the non-core division - earning him praise from chief executive Ross McEwan, a promotion to head of the investment bank and a £2m conditional share award. But a "bust-up" with colleagues over how to implement the strategy for shrinking the investment bank ultimately cost him. A few years ago Mr Cullinan predicted that he would engineer his own departure, saying: "The end result is my demise." Somehow City Insider doubts he imagined it happening quite the way it did.

Canary Wharf: at the mercy of the elements

The new owners of Canary Wharf may have watched in horror on Tuesday as they saw their new acquisition battling the elements. Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, and Canadian property investors Brookfield won control of the east London business district earlier this year after a hard fought takeover battle. They must have been glad that the real estate portfolio didn't include JPMorgan's HQ at 25 Bank Street. The building was among the worst off during the gales that hit London: solar panels blew off its roof, narrowly missing unsuspecting bankers below. The Bank Street office is also the former European home of collapsed bank Lehman Brothers. And they say lightening doesn't strike twice.

Man Group: on song after years of losses

Man Group's Got Talent. Roberta Howett, an assistant at its GLG Partners hedge fund, has just released a piano ballad called "Broken Wings". The angelic Irish musician - a former X Factor finalist - sings in rich tones, "maybe broken wings can fly again". A fitting metaphor for Man's Group's quant fund AHL, which has roared back into the black after years of losses.

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