AS producers of The Apprentice look to find a replacement for Margaret Mountford, City Spy wonders what are the chances of the successful candidate coming from that close band of business talent gathered under the umbrella of celebrity agent Speak Out!?
Currently, the agency includes on its books Sir Alan Sugar and Adrian Chiles as well as former contestants, Michelle Dewberry, Ruth Badger and Karen Bremner (dark-haired lawyer from series two). Already seen as potential candidates are Ultimo bra maker Michelle Mone and Birmingham City chairman Karren Brady. Both are regulars on the show and both are, surprise surprise, on Speak Out!'s books.
Given that the BBC producers clearly don't bother looking much further afield, City Spy is happy to point out the agency's other potential Margarets. Martha Lane Fox, Ariadne Capital's Julie Meyer and recruitment tycoon Penny Streeter could all fit the bill.

Deripaska is feeling the pinch

THE CREDIT crunch gets ever worse for Oleg Deripaska, friend of Lord Mandelson and foe of 850 Brummies let go at his bust van-making business LDV. City Spy reported in March that things had got so tough for Deripaska that he had been forced to make cuts in the household staff at his mansion in St George's Hill near Weybridge and at his Belgrave Square townhouse. Even the full-time chauffeur had gone. Now the word is that one top estate agency is discreetly (well, okay not that discreetly) taking enquiries as to takers for the Belgrave Square abode that used to be worth around £25 million...

* WE know about its billions of debt and its embarrassment over falling out of the Dow Jones blue-chip index, but Citigroup must be really desperate for money. The bank has started a series of small-change lawsuits, accusing a New York pawnbroker, All Citi Pawn, of violating its trademark, and now directing its gaggle of £500-an-hour lawyers towards a website called Womenco.com. Citi believes the site, a networking group for “career-minded women”, sounds too much like its financial management arm, Women & Co, and therefore harms Citigroup's status as “one of the largest and most renowned banking and financial institutions in the United States and throughout the world”. Hmmm.

* AFTER rumours that the two have been jockeying for prime position on BBC1's Ten O'Clock News, Robert Peston has taken to praising his colleague, economics editor Stephanie Flanders. Writing on his blog about George Osborne's fiscal plans, the business editor adds: “For an acute and amusing insight into the rest of what he said, see Stephanie Flanders' note of yesterday” — with a web link to her blog. Happy days.

* IT'S over. Official. The property industry has been watching Tony Pidgley, who predicted the early 1990s recession and moved from land into cash ahead of the rout this time, for any sign he believes the market may have bottomed. And lo, he's made a return, trumpets Property Week, buying Johnson House, a block of flats on Ebury Street in Belgravia for £22 million from the Metropolitan Police.

* IT is not hard to see why Stephen Carter would like to quit the Government after publishing his Digital Britain Report tomorrow. With Labour limping on to near-certain electoral defeat, Carter evidently doesn't rate the prospects of implementing much
of his report's recommendations. There's also the small matter of status and salary. Gordon Brown gave him a junior ministerial job, paying around £72,000 a year, after a brief unsuccessful spell as No. 10 strategy adviser on around £140,000. Carter's experience of government has not been happy — he faces being one of 10 junior ministers in Lord Mandelson's expanded über-Department of Business. Who can blame Carter for wanting to earn more as well? At Ofcom until 2006, he earned close to £400,000. Any serious media chief executive's job ought to pay him well in excess of £1 million.

* MICHAEL Grade, earning around £83,000 as BBC chairman, was similarly tempted out of the public sector to join ITV on £1 million-plus a year, including potential bonuses. And we know how that has ended...

* CARTER, City Spy is told, has enjoyed becoming a peer. Quite whether WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell, who groomed Carter and made him chief executive of advertising agency JWT, shares in that delight as he remains a mere knight while his protégé has become a peer remains
to be seen...

* NOW that Patience Wheatcroft looks like heading back to journalism, to the Wall Street Journal, she is expected to quit as a £78,000-a-year non-executive director of Barclays. That fee includes £15,000 for sitting on the bank's Brand And Reputation Committee, which had a torrid time fighting off criticism over its tax avoidance strategies and involvement with Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth. But Barclays' reputation is glowing again, having survived the crunch, and BarCap is said to be paying huge salaries and bonuses to hire staff once more. So Wheatcroft should leave on a high, with an estimated 6000 Barclays shares to boot.

* WHEATCROFT would join at a pivotal moment for the WSJ in Europe. The flagship Murdoch business title has begun heaping praise on David Cameron: “A Tory star rises as a threat to Brown.”
The WSJ all but nails its colours to the mast: “The Conservative leader exudes a relaxed charm and self-confidence, while Mr Brown emits an air of dour intensity.”

Green shoots sprout in Libya

TRIPOLI is the happening place in construction. According to Building magazine, this September's 40th anniversary of the military coup that propelled Colonel Gaddafi to power should mark a bonanza for new projects. It's also a great fun time... of sorts. “Anyone who says there's really no alcohol here is totally misinformed,” says one anonymous expat. “There is a massive expat scene here, but it's behind closed doors. We all have parties at our houses and we all drink. There are single men and women here and we do date each other!”