CITY WHISPERS: Green energy tiddler eyes up float in the Square Mile

Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you know that mergers and acquisitions are making a comeback.

There is still a shortage of that other important City activity – IPOs – but Whispers has heard that European Green Transition (EGT) will announce its intention to list on the AIM junior market within days.

EGT wants to invest in wind or solar farms and critical metal mines – anything that helps the world get closer to net zero. Its main asset is a mining exploration project in Sweden.

The value of the company is unclear, but it is looking to raise just £6m while listing on the stock market.

Whatever the size, it’s encouraging to hear that someone is interested in listing in London after a series of defections to New York.

Hemp love fight

While EGT is preparing for life as a listed company, the same cannot be said for troubled cannabis group Love Hemp.

The company is back in administration 13 months after it was rescued by a small investor group.

Portillion Capital initially said Love Hemp would rejoin the stock market within months as it signed boxer Anthony Joshua and struck a deal to sell products through the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

But he had difficulty raising funds. Portillion is said to like to buy back Love Hemp if she can, down but maybe not out?

Gary Stevenson goes for gold

Gary Stevenson, a Citibank alumnus, is making the rounds to promote his book The Trading Game.

It tells how the Ilford-born LSE graduate became the US investment bank’s most profitable trader in 2011, only to quit three years later, disillusioned with greed in finance.

Stevenson now campaigns against wealth inequality and teaches economics in YouTube videos. But he hasn’t abandoned the trade entirely.

He let slip to Whispers that during the pandemic he bought “£1m worth of gold”.

When he made his bet, gold prices were around $1,445 an ounce. These days it is trading at $2,160, an increase of almost 50 percent.

The head of EE continues to make moves

He may have missed out on the top job at parent group BT last year, but EE boss Marc Allera was still making moves in the boardrooms last week.

On Wednesday he was appointed chairman of Cambridge-based video games developer Jagex after it was sold to private equity firms CVC Capital and Haveli Investments in a £900m deal last month.

While his day job remains mobile phones, the role at Jagex is a homecoming for Allera, who ran the UK division of Japanese gaming giant Sega for four years at the turn of the millennium.

Let’s see if he can take Jagex to the next level.

Contributor: Francesca Washtell