CITY WHISPERS: Green energy tiddler eyes floating up 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 key city activity: IPOs, but Whispers hears that European Green Transition (EGT) will announce its intention to list on the junior market AIM within days.

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

The company’s value is not clear, but it is only looking to raise £6 million while it is on the stock market.

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

Love hemp battle

While EGT is gearing up for life as a publicly traded company, the same cannot be said for troubled cannabis group Love Hemp.

The company is back under management thirteen months after it was rescued by a small investment group.

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

But it was difficult to raise money. Rumor has it that Portillion would like to buy Love Hemp again if it can – down but maybe not out?

Gary Stevenson goes for gold

Former Citibank high-flyer Gary Stevenson is making the rounds to promote his book The Trading Game.

It details how the Ilford-born LSE graduate became the US investment bank’s most profitable trader in 2011 – only to quit three years later, disillusioned by the greed in the financial world.

Stevenson now campaigns against wealth inequality and teaches economics in YouTube videos. But he hasn’t given up on trading completely.

He informed Whispers that he had bought ‘£1 million worth of gold’ during the pandemic.

When he placed his bet, the price of gold was hovering around $1,445 per ounce. Today it trades at $2,160, up almost 50 percent.

EE boss is still making 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 game 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 is still mobile phones, the Jagex role is a homecoming for Allera, who spent four years running the British arm of Japanese gaming giant Sega at the turn of the millennium.

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

Contributor: Francesca Washtell