MIPIM was MIPIM with the usual suspects milling around looking for partners to do deals with and, frankly, I’m sure a number of deals were done during the four days.

Boris Johnson (bless him) was waxing lyrical about the concordat – a word no one quite understands – but I suppose it’s meant to mean a self regulating gentleman’s understanding with agents and developers to endeavour to focus marketing in the UK before going to the wilds of the East in search of buyers. Continue reading →

Putin has just carried out the most audacious land grab since the days of Hitler trouncing a myriad of international agreements in the process and what is the response from the United States of Europe, practically nothing!

President Obama’s genius idea is to freeze the bank accounts of 20 well-known Russian entrepreneurs – that will undoubtedly terrify Mr. Putin.  I wonder what Obama said to Putin during his 90-minute tirade on the phone last week?  At least it gave Mr. Putin time to have his manicure whilst his varnish was allowed to dry. Continue reading →

I need to take you back a little to understand how London has emerged from a souvenir city, rich in heritage, to its present all singing colossus.  If you will ‘the greatest city on earth!’

Through the reforms of the 80s, spearheaded by Thatcher, London started to shed the shackles of its socialistic past by getting rid of exchange controls and deregulating a plethora of byzantine systems and traditions whilst it embraced the new age technology of the 21^st Century.  The time zone and geographical location of this great City of ours between the East and West gave us a unique advantage and whilst back then financial services were restricted to insurance it is today an all embracing frenetic hub where more IPOs take place than anywhere else in the world. Continue reading →