Spirited early starter gets caught smuggling carrots
Travel dilemmas have become par for the MIPIM course. Whether it’s a broken down train or a freak spring snow storm, everyone has now come to expect a rough ride to Cannes. But spare a thought for those on yesterday’s midday flight from Heathrow, where one conference goer appeared to have got into the spirit – quite literally and a tad early. “The chap in the seat next to me threw up pretty much as soon as he sat down on the plane,” shuddered my breakfast companion this morning. “I don’t think he was travel sick either.” Vomit-inducing alcohol intake before even leaving British soil? Idiotic or impressive? Answers on a post card please.
MOUTON BAGS A FIRST More travel woes as Jean-Philippe Mouton, Hammerson’s managing director for France, may be able to claim the award for first lost luggage of MIPIM. The poor chap’s suitcase went walkabouts on flight between Paris and Marseille ahead of giving journalists a tour of the REIT’s new Les Terrasses Du Port shopping centre development. There’s always at least one airline ready to spoil the party.
BLACKSTONE NO PUPPY Blackstone’s manoeuvrings over both Chiswick Park and Broadgate are sure to be one of the talking points of MIPIM this week, with news of a refinancing package on the former breaking
over the weekend. The private equity giant’s mega deals have prompted wags in the property industry to coin a new phrase which, when Diary was tipped off on Friday by a rival financial journalist seemed an early contender for quote of the
show. A puppy is for life, so the saying goes, but Blackstone certainly isn’t.
ALMOST AN EARLY BATH It was very nearly man overboard on day one along the marina. It turns out the Malcolm Hollis yacht gang- plank wasn’t quite secured – as Diary discovered being one of the first guests aboard. And while I can’t think of a better location for my first Cannes coffee, had it not been for some otherwise
undiscovered balancing
skills, it would have been a very different, and much wetter, start to the day. “We really must tighten those ropes up,” muttered Malcolm Hollis’s senior partner. “We are going to seriously lose some people otherwise.” Anyone due to drop by for an on board drink – you have been warned!
spotted
There was much muttering about Chris Grigg pulling out of the headline London First lunch on Tuesday. With the British Land chief exec due to speak, what could be more important than MIPIM? various luminaries asked. Well, it turns out Grigg had nigh on a billion reasons to delay his arrival: a £500m share placing and the sale of Ropemaker for a sum not unadjacent to that.