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HSBC's still wrestling with the new order
8 Apr 2009The self-styled "world's local bank" stepped into controversy last year when it used a fat white man called Brian as the model for a Sumo wrestler in an advertising campaign.
Now HSBC seems to have laid itself open to further accusations of cultural insensitivity with a Tube poster likely to raise Indian hackles with its hackneyed portrayal of the country. The poster, headlined "Never Underestimate the Importance of Local Investment Knowledge", is part of the long-running HSBC ad campaign depicting global contrasts.
The ad shows what's "precious" to Americans, illustrated by a security guard standing in front of a pile of gold bars. Under what's "precious" for India, the contrast is a woman taking water from a water pump, while carrying a pitcher on head.
"Perhaps if it had contrasted American victims of Hurricane Katrina wanting water with some Indians enjoyed the golden success of their country's economic renaissance, the ad might have challenged a few assumptions," said one media observer. "Using a black security guard in the American is pretty corny too - hasn't HSBC heard that the President of the United States is an African-American?"
For the record, HSBC is supporting Indian villages in Maharasthra to gain water self-sufficiency in one of the many environmental projects it backs. So perhaps it's only the marketing department that doesn't get it.
* No surprise whatsoever that HM Treasury ended up buying almost the entire £5 billion share issue from Royal Bank of Scotland, taking its stake up to 70%. What is surprising is that anyone else decided to buy the shares. Some 0.3% of the issue or 118 million shares were bought by other existing shareholders. Why? They paid 31.75p for the new shares when they could have bought old existing shares for just 28p in the market. So they have taken an instant 12% loss. Why?
* Shock, horror: the Institute of Economic Affairs has banned alcohol from its premises. In the past, the free-market think-tank has been known for hosting convivial brainstorming sessions fuelled by bottles of modestly priced plonk. Now wine may only be served by special permission of the trustees. Accusing fingers are being pointed in the direction of one trustee for possessing a puritanical streak — CQS hedge fund supremo Michael Hintze. “The IEA is supposed to hold out against just this sort of nannying interference,” says one aggrieved staffer.
Sir Mike's just Raking it in...
Standing down from his £3 million-a-year job running accountants KPMG has left a hole in the personal finances of the polo-loving Sir Mike Rake. Which he is obviously doing something about. He has gone in as deputy chairman at easyJet, pro tem with a view to taking on the chairmanship later in the year. In doing so, he will be adding a £200,000 easyJet stipend to the £600,000 a year BT pays him to be its chairman, and the £90,000 he gets for being a
part-time director of Barclays.
* BT has granted Rake a £1 million death-in-service lump sum — a curious perk for any chairman in a job that is hardly operationally key-man...
* The 30 interns at Barclays were looking forward to meeting the bank's star, Bob Diamond, in person last week. Unfortunately, Diamond unexpectedly had to fly to New York, so he addressed them by weblink. Among the nuggets reported back to City Spy was that he's confident the Barclays share price will be north of £3 in a year's time...
Naomi's guy plays Trump card
Is all well for fiery Streatham supermodel Naomi Campbell's dashing Russian businessman beau Vladimir Doronin?
Russian bank Sberbank has quietly taken over his Capital Group's biggest asset, a massive housing, shops and offices project called Gorod Stolits, in Moskva-City on Moscow's outskirts. Under a $400 million (£270 million) loan agreement, the bank will ensure construction of the complex goes ahead at the end of the year as planned by Doronin, who has been likened to Donald Trump.
The Russian billionaire, a regular visitor to London, is understood to be feeling the crunch, and he has an expensive girlfriend to maintain, but restructuring the deal should ensure he can keep her in yachts and sparklers for a little longer at least.
Saatchi boss can't get no satisfaction from Ronnie
Last May, M&C Saatchi chief executive and committed Gooner David Kershaw paid £16,000 at a charity auction for his hero Arsene Wenger to sit for a portrait by Ronnie Wood (the buyer got to be present at the sitting, as well as keep the painting).
Alas, Kershaw is still waiting to see Ronnie at work. The problem is not with the Arsenal manager or the club, but with the artist. A year ago, the Rolling Stone was still seemingly happily married to his wife Jo.
Then, in the summer, he hooked up with Ekaterina Ivanova, a teenage cocktail waitress he met in a London club. He's still with Ivanova and now there's talk of a divorce being on the cards.
He's also been detained by a spell in rehab since Kershaw reached for his chequebook.
“The charity was TreeHouse, the brilliant autism charity founded by Nick Hornby,” says Kershaw. “I'm very happy they've got my money and Arsenal, to be fair, have done their best. However Ronnie clearly has other priorities.”
* Sir Stuart Rose may have gained a thumbs-up from the City for better-than-expected figures, but is Marks & Spencer entirely on the ball? A reader who bought a pack of socks last week was invited to enter a competition to win a silver Audi. The closing date for entries was 10 January 2009 —and he reports that “there were rails and rails” of the socks.
* At last, economists begin to own up. Warwick University's Professor Andrew Oswald writes: “We have all learned a little humility. A few years ago, I argued that a large housing crash was likely, but I did not correctly predict its timing.
“As economists we have to accept part of the responsibility for what has happened. It is the job of experts to prevent crises in the domains in which they are meant to be expert.
In this sense, economists have let down the country.”
