SPORTS DIRECT AND TO THE POINT
cityam-2016-06-08-57575bc45f929
cityam-2016-06-08-57575bc45f929
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12 NEWS WEDNESDAY 8 JUNE 2016<br />
CITYAM.COM<br />
<strong>THE</strong>CAPITALIST<br />
Got A Story? Email<br />
thecapitalist@cityam.com<br />
A buffet with Buffett?<br />
Bidding begins here<br />
<strong>THE</strong> SQUARE mile boasts more than<br />
its fair share of well-seasoned lunchers.<br />
But post-crisis corporate cost-cutting may<br />
have dented even the Sage of Omaha’s<br />
chances of getting City-types to fork out<br />
for a three-hour sit down over steak.<br />
Bidding may have opened for the<br />
annual charitable lunch with the world’s<br />
most famous investor Warren Buffet over<br />
the weekend, but it is failing to come<br />
close to last year’s record<br />
$2.3m (£1.6m) shelled<br />
out by Chinese businessman<br />
Zhu Ye.<br />
At $210,000 for you plus<br />
seven selected diners to<br />
meet the Berkshire<br />
Hathaway founder at<br />
his favourite Smith &<br />
Wollensky steakhouse<br />
in Manhattan, the<br />
lunch is still a pricey way of getting<br />
some face time and stock tips from the<br />
self-made billionaire worth $66.6bn.<br />
Previous winners – some of whom<br />
choose to remain anonymous – clearly<br />
think it’s good value. Fund manager<br />
Ted Weschler spent $2.6m on the<br />
lunch in 2010, then another $2.6m just<br />
one year later. A few months after that,<br />
Buffett offered him a job.<br />
In the 17 years Buffett has been offering<br />
a few hours of his time to<br />
anyone rich enough to buy<br />
it, none of the named winners<br />
have been from the<br />
UK. Could this be our year?<br />
Veteran investor Warren<br />
Buffett auctions off lunch<br />
spaces to keen diners<br />
ROYAL ASCOT COMES EARLY The<br />
Square Mile hosts warm up race<br />
<strong>THE</strong> INAUGURAL “Ascot in the City” competition starts at 1:30 tomorrow<br />
afternoon in front of the horse statue at The Royal Exchange. City execs from<br />
financial institutions such as Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital and BNP Paribas<br />
will vie for the Yardsmen Frontrunner Trophy. Yes, they’ll be riding toy horses.<br />
NUDE DINING IS IN <strong>TO</strong>WN<br />
Jamie Oliver introduced the idea of a<br />
Naked Chef, but a London pop-up<br />
restaurant has gone a lot further: it<br />
welcomes nude customers. The<br />
Bunyadi bills itself as “free from the<br />
trappings of modern life”. There are<br />
also no mobile phones and no food<br />
preparation that requires electrical<br />
appliances. Just don’t spill the soup.<br />
QUOTE OF <strong>THE</strong> DAY<br />
The price of ice<br />
cream will<br />
go up<br />
Unilever boss Paul<br />
Polman ramps up<br />
Brexit fears to new<br />
levels, as he<br />
predicts there<br />
will be import<br />
levies on diary<br />
products.<br />
Billing errors set energy<br />
customers back £270m<br />
JESSICA MORRIS<br />
@jssmorris<br />
MISTAKES by energy suppliers led to<br />
nearly four million customers being<br />
overcharged by a total £270m last<br />
year.<br />
The blunders cost energy<br />
consumers £72 each, according to<br />
new research from independent<br />
price comparison and switching<br />
service uSwitch.com.<br />
The mistakes also cost customers<br />
their time, with nearly a fifth<br />
waiting between one to two<br />
months for an issue to be resolved,<br />
and 12 per cent waiting two<br />
months. Worse still, nearly one in<br />
10 of those overcharged are yet to<br />
receive any money back.<br />
More than a third of those whose<br />
supplier had made an error said<br />
that the wrong tariff or product<br />
details had been applied.<br />
This was followed by<br />
providers levying<br />
incorrect fees (31 per<br />
cent), as well as the<br />
wrong meter reading<br />
(27 per cent) and<br />
inaccurate direct<br />
debt amounts (24 per<br />
cent).<br />
“It’s unacceptable in<br />
this day and age that<br />
customers are picking up the<br />
cost of suppliers’ mistakes,” Claire<br />
Osborne, energy expert at<br />
uSwitch.com, said.<br />
“Accurate bills are essential if<br />
consumers stand any hope of<br />
taking control of their energy use<br />
and spend.<br />
“Recent upgrades by some<br />
suppliers to billing<br />
systems have resulted in<br />
teething problems, but<br />
Billing blunders are<br />
costing consumers £72<br />
each, says uSwitch<br />
today’s figures show<br />
there’s still more for the<br />
industry to do.<br />
“We urge customers to<br />
always check their bills carefully,<br />
and speak to their supplier if they<br />
think they have been shortchanged.”<br />
London Chamber of Commerce and Industry<br />
urges Cameron to back Heathrow expansion<br />
JAMES NICKERSON<br />
@nickersonjw<br />
A <strong>TO</strong>P business group has urged<br />
the government to back Heath -<br />
row after the EU referendum<br />
following pledges from Gatwick<br />
that it would make concessions to<br />
get the green light for a second<br />
runway.<br />
The London Chamber of<br />
Commerce and Industry (LCCI)<br />
said that airport expansion must<br />
be the priority after 23 June,<br />
adding that government should<br />
respond to the recommendations<br />
of the Airports Commission.<br />
Last year, the independent<br />
Airports Commission, headed by<br />
Sir Howard Davies, said Heathrow<br />
should be expanded, but with<br />
severe environmental restrictions.<br />
LCCI chief executive Colin<br />
Stanbridge said: “[The]<br />
government has been ‘on-hold’<br />
for the past couple of months.<br />
And as a result many big<br />
decisions have been delayed.<br />
“There are no more excuses to<br />
delay a new runway decision –<br />
and one of the most crucial<br />
decisions for the sake of London<br />
and the UK economy.<br />
“The referendum result is due<br />
on Friday 24 June, [and] this<br />
should be followed by a clear<br />
decision on which airport<br />
location will be allowed to<br />
expand.”<br />
The push from the business<br />
group comes after Gatwick wrote<br />
an open letter to Prime Minister<br />
David Cameron, promising to cap<br />
passenger fares and accelerate its<br />
timetable if it is picked ahead of<br />
Heathrow.<br />
“The pledges we are<br />
making...represent a fair deal for<br />
the country – for passengers, the<br />
taxpayer and local communities.<br />
Critically they guarantee that the<br />
UK’s next runway can actually be<br />
built and operated legally so that<br />
Britain can grow,” the letter said.