Sleeping partners
THE bad news from Robert Fleming is that he has lost a few hundred thousand pounds (chairman Joe Burnett-Stuart's breezy phrase) by setting up as a freelance stockjobber. The good news is that this does not keep Mr Burnett-Stuart, so he says, awake at nights. The Prudential's fund managers, too, can sleep calmly they like dealing with Fleming, they parti- cularly like not paying commission, and if Fleming has lost that money somebody else must have made it . . . Stock Exchange jobbers, though, bounce off their pillows in nocturnal irritation when they think of Fleming, whose competition they regard as unfair. Goodness, and how much more, unfair it will become, if Fleming ever comes to enjoy the jobbers' exemption from stamp duty, or if (as some in the City believe) the Chancellor scraps Stamp Duty altogether. But the really good news is that Fleming will be in its new offices in London Wall by the end of this year, which must mean that Coates Wine Bar, on the ground 'floor, will be back in business — complete, I hope, with its dark panelling, fruitcake for port, and curious unisex lavatory.
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