CITY WHISPERS: Perhaps it’s time to tame your inner beast, Matt Moulding

When Matt Molding’s wife was faced with the question of what to buy for the boss who has everything, she chose a striking photo of a wildebeest jumping into a river.

When Molding came to write about it on Instagram, he chose to muse on leadership.

In addition to talking about the difficult time his company – online retailer THG – has had on the stock market since going public, he also talked about humility.

This is a “rare quality” that all leaders should have, said the protein shake sage. “Too many people change as their career progresses. Egos grow and self-esteem spirals out of control.’

Maybe someone can remind him of this the next time he considers posting a topless selfie of his muscular 50-year-old body on social media?

And anyone familiar with wildebeest knows that the first to cross a river are the fastest eaten. Watch out Matt.

Revolut is still waiting for license

Another week passed without Revolut getting its banking license.

In late February, The Mail on Sunday reported that the much-coveted stamp of approval from regulators was widely expected to be just weeks away.

Then, a few days later, when it released its deferred financial statements, finance chief Mikko Salovaara said the license was “imminent.”

So will it be in days or are we still talking about weeks? It’s not clear.

There’s a free get-out-of-jail card here, though, in that technically any length of time longer than two weeks can be “weeks away.”

Investors stock up on Sainsbury’s

British shoppers may be increasingly turning to German discounters Aldi and Lidl to buy their groceries, but investors are still lining up to stock up on Sainsbury’s shares.

The value of its stock is up a quarter so far this year after it reported a bumper Christmas.

And another group in the City has also taken note of Sainsbury’s success: short-sellers.

The number of shorts – that is, bets that a company’s stock price will fall – targeting Sainsbury’s has roughly halved since early 2023 to 2.2% of shares outstanding.

This is the lowest point in four years and much less than the 9 percent achieved in early 2021.

It seems that Sainsbury’s City is forcing hedge funds to go on a bargain hunt.

Hard decisions for Harbor

Harbor Energy made headlines last week when it cut a fifth of its workforce in the wake of the government’s windfall tax on oil and gas groups.

The decision must have been difficult for the largest company in the North Sea.

But Whispers can reveal that other drastic measures have been discussed.

After the levy on energy profits was stepped up last November, a meeting of the Port Council discussed moving the listing to the US.

The conversation would have been preliminary and informal, but the idea was brought up as one of the available ‘options’.

Harbor declined to comment, but so far has remained with the LSE, while numerous other firms have defected to New York.