12 The Sunday Times November 28, 2021
BUSINESS
It was excruciatingly embarrassing.
Everyone’s been talking about it. It
was so awful that everyone was sort
of nonplussed by it
City fund manager Nicola Horlick reacts
to Boris Johnson’s now notorious speech
to the CBI conference last weekYes20%
No80%
Terra Firma tycoon Guy
Hands recently made a
terrible confession. No, not
about his past addiction to
roast potatoes, or his
struggles with bolshy pop
stars while in charge of EMI —
detailed in his recent
autobiography The
Dealmaker — but something
altogether far more
unhealthy: the private equity
boss uses his mobile phone a
whopping 17 hours a day.
“I’ve got a very, very
unhealthy relationship with
my mobile phone... I
overuse it to a ludicrous
extent,” Hands, 62, told the
Can I Ask You A Personal
Question? podcast.
The one-time owner of the
Four Seasons care home
chain confessed the scary
number was revealed in his
screen-time report, which atfirst he tried to dispute. “It’s
quite insane... I just can’t
believe I’m on it that
[much],” he said. “What it’s
really telling me is, except
when I’m asleep, I’m using it
so often, it just feels it’s
continually being used.”
However, on reflection,
Hands divulged: “As I get
through two batteries in
about ten hours, it probably
is pretty accurate.”
Indeed, it seems entirely
in keeping with someone
who recently told The
Sunday Times that he was
“addicted to work” and
“scared of ending my life
having not achieved
[anything]”. Let’s hope for
Hands’s sake that the time
spent thumbing away on his
phone was put to good use;
17 hours is a long time to be
on Candy Crush.Man of steel
bows out in style
Lots of business people will
bang on about the highs and
lows of running a company,
but Sir David Murray, 70,
(right) knows what he’s
talking about after almost
half a century in business.
The Scottish entrepreneur
launched his steel distributor
at the age of 23, building up
the operation into a property
and venture capital group at
one point turning over well
in excess of £500 million.
Murray also owned Rangers
FC for more than 20 years.
Although he lost much of
his wealth during the
financial crisis that began in
2007, the greater trauma life
threw at him occurred just as
he was starting out in
business. While driving
home from a rugby match in
his mid-20s, he was
horrifically injured in a car
accident, losing both his legs.
Earlier this year, Murray
announced that he was
handing over the day-to-day
running of his investment
operation Murray Capital
Group to his two sons, David
and Keith.
He is passing on the family
shop in good order. There
were profits of £9.8 million in
the year to the end of June2021 — the best for five years.
Now that’s what you call
going out on a high.Succession: the
builder’s version
Succession plans at another
big British name were settled
last week: Ray O’Rourke,
boss of construction giant
Laing O’Rourke, announced
that he was retiring after 45
years at the helm.
O’Rourke, 74, who will be
replaced by Anglo Americanexecutive Seamus French,
came to London in the 1960s
and found work on the
Underground as a “pony
boy”, pulling carts in and out
of tunnels during the
building of the Victoria Line.
He later built Laing O’Rourke
into a £2.5 billion behemoth.
In recent years, Laing
O’Rourke has been pursuing
enlightened policies such as
boosting the diversity of its
workforce, with a target of
having half its 5,500 global
employees being women by
2033 (up from a quarter
now). “Diversity ... remains
unacceptably low in our
sector,” O’Rourke said earlier
this year.
It’s a far cry from the days
when the company was
founded by O’Rourke and his
brother in 1978. Back then, it
was called R O’Rourke & Son,
a name it held until 2001
when it bought Laing
Construction for £1.
O’Rourke’s son, Cathal,
noted in an interview with EY
last year that he was the
unnamed son in the name.
“Now I don’t even get a
credit,” he joked.
However, the family
ructions didn’t end there.
“My sisters weren’t too
happy about that,” Cathal
recalled. “They thought it
should have been R O’Rourke
& Son & Daughters.”Guy Hands discovered he was on his mobile 17 hours a daySir David Murray has tasted
triumph and disasterDevil makes work for
phone-hungry Hands
6 It was a titanic struggle worthy of the silver screen — but in
the end, the movie business lost. London landlord Asif Aziz,
dubbed “Mr West End”, won a legal battle in September
against Cineworld over £2.9 million of rent it did not pay while
its Trocadero Picturehouse was shut during the pandemic.
Last week, Cineworld and other defendents were told to
cough up 90 per cent of Aziz’s costs by the High Court.
Cineworld chief Mooky Greidinger will need a few more
screenings of No Time To Die to cover that bill.Jon Yeomans
JUST SAYING...
FUNNY BUSINESS
TWITTER POLL
Should JP Morgan boss
Jamie Dimon have
apologised for joking that
his bank would outlast the
Chinese Communist Party?
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62 Mondi 1746.5-78.5 2068.0 1658.0 2.8 17.3 8.5
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40 Ocado 1829.0-68.5 2883.0 1565.5 0.0 N.A 13.7
189 OSB 495.8 -12.2 515.0373.8 3.8 8.0 2.2
97 Oxford Nanopore 645.0-47.0 692.0525.0 0.0 N.A 5.3
197 Page 634.5-34.5 680.5 414.6 0.758.6 2.1
107 Pearson 610.2-19.8 869.4587.6 3.1 16.4 4.6
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159 Rotork 342.0 -8.0 376.6289.8 2.5 31.1 2.9
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134 Frasers 683.0-15.5 703.0421.8 0.0 N.A 3.4
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108 Hutchmed (China) 532.0 +80.0 624.0352.0 0.0 N.A 4.6
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123 Abcam 1687.0 -7.01719.0 1265.0 0.0 232.4 3.9
99 Abrdn 238.1 -15.2 331.1238.1 5.7 3.6 5.2
58 Admiral 2963.0-17.0 3688.0 2798.0 5.1 13.4 8.9
109 Airtel Africa 121.3 -7.4 135.9 71.4 2.6 11.8 4.6
149 Alliance Trust 1020.0 -40.01078.0868.0 1.4 4.3 3.1
17 Anglo American 2635.0 -209.0 3444.0 2213.5 6.4 6.5 35.5
41 Antofagasta 1384.5-24.01925.01215.5 2.6 17.7 13.6
193 Ashmore 301.0 -0.4 479.6 301.0 5.4 8.8 2.1
23 Ashtead 6084.0 -222.0 6450.0 3150.0 0.7 31.8 27.1
170 Asos 2448.0 -297.05918.0 2300.0 0.019.2 2.4
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200 Assura 69.5 -1.1 79.8 69.2 3.7 13.9 2.0
1 AstraZeneca 8411.0-68.0 9444.0 6794.0 2.488.4 130.3
73 Auto Trader 729.8 -5.2 735.6543.6 1.136.0 6.9
84 Avast 601.8 +6.4609.4420.0 1.9 28.9 6.2
55 Aveva 3202.0 -237.0 4220.0 3107.0 1.1 N.A 9.7
38 Aviva 370.9-20.9 426.2 314.2 3.6 23.4 14.1
83 B&M European Value Retail 628.0 +25.0 643.8466.7 2.9 14.6 6.3
30 BAE Systems 549.8 -15.2 599.4 462.1 4.3 10.0 17.4
20 Barclays 181.7 -9.3 202.8 133.5 1.5 5.8 30.5
71 Barratt Developments 687.4 +2.8 794.8583.4 4.110.7 7.0
173 Beazley 397.8-20.5 423.1294.4 0.029.3 2.4
122 Bellway 3141.0-92.03712.0 2718.0 3.6 9.9 3.9
103 Berkeley Holdings 4293.0 -161.0 4943.0 4053.0 0.2 11.9 4.8
3 BHP 1962.0+77.82375.5 1698.6 11.2 11.7 102.0
157 Big Yellow 1620.0 +34.01641.0 1053.0 1.7 6.2 3.0
192 Boohoo 174.3-17.0 373.3 174.3 0.037.5 2.2
9 BP 317.7 -8.9 363.6 247.7 4.6 13.1 62.9
116 Bridgepoint 508.0-25.0 569.0452.0 0.086.6 4.2
10 British American Tobacco 2541.0 -3.5 2924.0 2485.5 8.2 9.6 58.3
105 British Land Company 515.0-13.8 544.8429.8 1.0 N.A 4.8
176 Britvic 892.0+10.5 1006.0745.0 2.6 23.1 2.4
35 BT 154.0 -6.7 205.6 116.8 1.414.9 15.3
56 Bunzl 2835.0 -2.0 2837.0 2150.0 1.920.9 9.6
70 Burberry 1782.5 -150.5 2264.0 1687.0 2.9 15.3 7.2
34 Carnival 1182.8 -209.41865.41165.0 0.0 N.A 16.6
127 Centrica 64.9 -2.6 68.2 41.5 0.0 5.7 3.8
61 Coca Cola HBC 2343.0 -124.0 2784.0 2160.0 2.219.4 8.6
24 Compass 1453.5-26.0 1646.01310.5 0.972.7 25.9
135 Computacenter 2782.0-84.0 3030.0 2086.0 2.0 17.5 3.4
119 ConvaTec 194.5-25.7 262.6 186.2 2.1 37.8 3.9
188 Countryside Properties 435.4-22.6 571.5400.4 0.0 N.A 2.2
22 CRH 3709.0 +39.03921.0 2937.0 2.326.0 28.7
39 Croda International 9902.0 -133.0 10035.0 5908.0 1.054.8 13.8
182 Daily Mail and General Trust1080.0-14.01146.0683.0 2.340.9 2.3
141 Darktrace 471.0-56.5 985.0315.0 0.0 N.A 3.3
93 DCC 5622.0 -180.0 6614.0 5178.0 2.8 18.6 5.5
95 Dechra Pharmaceuticals 5060.0 -305.0 5405.0 3178.0 0.899.2 5.5
88 Deliveroo 314.2 +5.7 395.0228.0 0.0 N.A 5.8
124 Derwent London 3437.0 +8.0 3802.0 2960.0 1.8 74.5 3.9TOP 200 COMPANIES
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V1.99% L:17,190.3When Rishi Sunak decided to
move the Treasury to
Darlington, Neil Sinclair was
delighted. He is the boss of
Palace Capital, a regional
developer and landlord. The
shift of workers away from
the capital means more
demand for his properties.
Listed on the main market
of the Stock Exchange, Palace
Capital is a real estate
investment trust that owns
£262 million worth of
properties in towns and cities
outside London. Founded in
2005, the company listed on
Aim in March of that year.
Sinclair, 78, bought into the
company in 2010, when he
took on the top role.
Over the past few years, it
has built a portfolio of
properties let to tenants
including Vue cinemas and
Accor hotels, and reported
revenues of £27.8 million in
the first half of this year.SABAH MEDDINGS
THE TIPSTER
FTSE 1006,0006,4006,8007, 2 0 02020 2021
Source: Thomson Reuters EikonTHE WEEK IN THE MARKETS
While the company’s
shares have been weak in the
past five years, investors are
beginning to take note. They
have risen almost 30 per cent
since the start of the year,
closing on Friday at 259p,
valuing Palace Capital at
£120 million. Part of this
buoyancy has been thanks to
its high level of rent collection
amid the pandemic: 97 per
cent for the June quarter, and
90 per cent for the
September quarter, expected
to increase to 95 per cent
when monthly payments for
December are received.
The trends look good.
HSBC has moved to
Birmingham, boosting the
housing market in Solihull.
Burberry went to Leeds, and
TalkTalk to Salford. There is
also the hope that more
graduates will look for jobs in
their university towns ratherthan heading to London.
According to the company,
almost 60 per cent of
Manchester students say they
will stay after graduating.
In March, Palace Capital
completed its new Hudson
Quarter development in
York, and has so far sold
enough of the units to repay
its lenders. In the
development, 64 apartments
have been sold for a total of
£21 million, with an
additional eight under offer.
For Palace Capital,
managing the pandemic has
been a delicate exercise.
Accor, a tenant in
Northampton, was handed a
six-month rent holiday in
exchange for extending its
lease by six years. Sinclair
rang the chief executive of
Vue directly to agree a deal.
A problem for Palace
Capital is its size. As a small
company, some of the big
institutional shareholders will
overlook it and it will not be
meaty enough for private
equity to come knocking. An
answer could be to
consolidate, which would
allow it to strip out back-
office costs and free up cash.
Expect Palace Capital to be
focused on finding a partner
in the months ahead. Buy.Property
is hot for
regional
developer
Palace Capital280p1602002402020 2021
Source: Thomson Reuters Eikonvariation 12 months
high low
UK 0.82 V0.06 1.20 0.17US 1.49 V0.06 1.74 0.84JAPAN 0.07 0 0.00 0.17 0.00GERMANY -0.34 0 0.00 -0.09 -0.6410-YEAR BOND YIELDS %
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Consumer prices index current rate prev. month
4.2% 3.1%
CPI including housing current rate prev. month3.8% 2.9%
Retail prices index current rate prev. month6.0% 4.9%
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Unemployment current rate prev. month1.45m 4.3% 4.5%
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UK trade
balance (£bn)latest 3 mthsprev. 3 mths latest 12 mths- 6.7 7 + 0.72 -2 2 .8 5
Gross domestic
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