Gulf Keystone, the AIM-listed Kurdistan explorer made a major discovery in Northern Iraq last month and saw its shares hit the stratosphere — rising from 9p to 90p in a little under three weeks. The joy of cheering Gulf Keystone shareholders however has been tempered a little by the realisation that 50% of the find is in the hands the company's joint venture partner, something calling itself ETAMIC.

Investigations into who or what ETAMIC is, however, have come up short with only an explanation that it is a private investment group based in the UAE. There is no further information on who its beneficial owners might be. Which has posed some scurrilous questions over whether ETAMIC might in fact be linked to Gulf Keystone directors.

But a spokesman for the company declares there are no cross-shareholdings or related party relationships with anyone at Gulf. Which make the following all the more intriguing: take the first letters of Gulf's executive directors Ewen Ainsworth, Toss Kosel, Adnan Sumarrai, Mohamed Messaoudi, J(I)ohn Gerstenlauer and Chris Garrett and you get ETAMIC.

What an extraordinary coincidence.

Grade, Ball and Brunswick...

THE great ITV “Balls Up” continues to entertain the City — more so than any TV soap. Just why has Tony (Ball) not been appointed CEO, a job for which he was being touted as a shoo-in? Is it because he is seeking a jaw-dropping £30 million? Then there's Tim (Burt), media partner at Brunswick and Ball's spinner-in-chief. Tim is being spoken of as the next ITV director of communications, should his man succeed. That raises the prospect of Brunswick picking up the lucrative ITV account. Which is most odd, since Alan (Parker), the Brunswick head and Tim's boss, and Michael (Grade), the departing ITV chief, were close pals. Michael is not thought to be pleased by Tony's naked ambition. Which begs the question: are Michael and Alan still as matey as they used to be?

Hedgie is so slow off the mark

HEDGE fund manager Bill Ackman doesn't like to be rushed — as his latest letter to investors in his Pershing Square Capital Management shows. The second-quarter update, sent out about a week before the start of the third quarter, comes with a detailed explanation why “we have a deserved reputation for tardiness in our quarterly communications.”

He goes on to confess: “The previous sentence should have been written with an I' rather than We' as I am the cause for these late communications... I insist on personally writing our quarterly letters. Some firms outsource this important function, but as the portfolio manager, I believe that you deserve to hear from me directly with no filter.” Yes, Bill, but why the lateness? Er, he's been busy investing, stupid. “I am always willing to defer the writing of the quarterly letter in favor of spending the time required for an existing investment in the portfolio or for the analysis of a promising new investment.

“As a result, these letters occasionally get delayed, particularly, one might expect, in a year as interesting as this one.” To conclude: “In the future if your letter has not yet arrived, in all likelihood it means that we are making progress with existing investments and/or have identified a potential new situation(s) that is consuming our time and investment resources.” So there.

Baz invests his cash online

PETER Bazalgette is touted as a possible contender to be the next chairman of Channel 4. But Bazalgette, who brought us Big Brother, is putting his money in the internet — not old-fashioned TV. He's investing an undisclosed amount of his own cash in a new start-up, AskPeopleYouKnow.com, set up by a couple of former AOL UK senior managers. The investors, who include a Deutsche banker and a Microsoft executive, have stumped up £1 million altogether.

The website works on the basis that users take advantage of their social network of contacts and friends to seek information that they can use — for pleasure or business. The thinking is that “people you know” are more trusted than an anonymous search engine. As Baz says: “The network effect is powerful: by including friends, friends of friends, people we work with, parents at children's schools, people living in our area, there is always going to be someone who can answer our questions.” City Spy's question is: Yes, but can you make money out of this?

London meets Moscow for Hambro bash

GOLD-DIGGERS were out in force to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Peter Hambro Mining at the Wallace Collection. Hambro and his Russian business partner, Pavel Maslovksiy, dubbed it the “Peter and Paul party” — in reference to their own names and the Russian icons, St Peter and St Paul. Their UK-listed company is the third biggest miner of gold in Russia, and more than two dozen guests flew in from Moscow for the bash.

Partygoers, who also included shareholders, bankers, City contacts and the Russian Ambassador, toasted the company with champagne and vodka shots.

Naturally, the chat was about where the price of gold is heading. It's been yo-yoing around the $1000 an ounce mark through most of the credit crunch but there is talk of the metal's “safe haven” status pushing the price up to $1500 or beyond. So far, of course, it has remained stubbornly below that level — and has been dropping again this week. But as one gold-miner suggested, it may not matter. “Gold is at $1000 an ounce and we're digging it out for $300,” he said cheerfully.

Some other guests from the commodities business were keener on base metals. Their tip? Tin and copper — up 120% since the start of the year, and still with “plenty of upside”.

* TESCO has been shuffling its chairs again. City Spy hears that Colin Holmes has been promoted to the group's executive management committee. Holmes is the food director, reporting to Richard Brasher, group trading director. The new position allows him to attend more group meetings with the company's top brass. The word in the Cheshunt nerve-centre is that Holmes, the former UK finance director, may be being groomed for higher things and by putting him on the committee, they want to lock him in...