CITY WHISPERS: Broker Marex eyes US float

There were raised eyebrows on City trading desks as commodity broker Marex said it might float in New York.

Marex had wanted to go public in London in May 2021 with a valuation of £500 million, but market volatility thwarted that.

Since then commodities have soared, especially steel, a Marex speciality. It raised profits by more than half to £97 million last year on sales of £562 million. 

Its owner, private equity firm JRJ, now wants a return on its investment.

But Marex doesn’t have the best reputation in the US, having been founded on the ruins of New York-based Refco, which went bust in 2005 after chief executive Phillip Bennett was found to have hidden £344 million in bad debts.

Marathon Asset Management snapped up Refco’s Europe arm and renamed it Marex, selling it to JRG in 2009, which still holds a 74 per cent stake.

A source said: ‘I’m not sure New York is Marex’s natural home. US investors remember Refco. I’d stick to London.’

UK fats cats defend their pay

Britsain’s private equity fat cats have been hard at work defending their pay, in particular ‘carried interest’, the element of their reward deemed to be a share of profit on deals.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been calling in the top brass to discuss the practice, widely seen as a tax loophole.

The Labour politician has in recent weeks seen Bridgepoint boss William Jackson as well as 3i chief executive Simon Borrows.

CVC Capital Partners also had a tete-a-tete with her ahead of a much anticipated float when the company is expected to snub London for Amsterdam.

Reeves is no fan of private equity, so the chiefs will have been squirming in their Savile Row tailored suits.

What next for former Rolls and Vodafone bosses? 

What next for former Rolls-Royce boss Warren East and Nick Read, chief executive at Vodafone for four years? 

Both stepped down at Christmas and, according to headhunters, both have been looking to secure chairman roles at a FTSE blue chip. 

Problem is, listed companies are under pressure to hire women and minorities into senior positions. 

Not a time to be male, pale or – not that Whispers would suggest it about these two – stale. 

FTX plotting to relaunch itself 

FTX – remember it? The baby of now disgraced crypto wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried is plotting to relaunch itself six months after its abrupt collapse under a mountain of fraud allegations.

The gossip coming out of the crypto-sphere has emerged after reports that the bankrupt exchange has clawed back over $7 billion (£5.5 billion) in cash and assets.

FTX lawyer Andy Dietderich seemed to have all but confirmed the group’s plans for a rerun, telling a US bankruptcy court this week that ‘the dumpster fire is out’.

But while the exchange may be looking to take to the crypto high seas again, its erstwhile boss is awaiting trial on fraud charges that could land him in prison for 115 years.