Author: Charlotte Gill

Rendezvous a Paris

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

The Prince de Galles hotel in Paris is steeped in history. Since its inauguration in the 1920s, it has hosted many celebrities and heads of state and quickly became a true icon of the City of Light. The hotel was built on the site of the quarry that provided the stones used to build the neighbouring Arc de Triomphe.

The Prince de Galles sits by another well-regarded hotel, the George V; the story of how these two institutions came to be is the story of a burgeoning Paris. “It was built in 1928,” says Simon Rusconi, the hotel’s General Manager. “The City of Paris owned the lot where the Prince de Galles hotel and the George V hotel are now sitting, and two businessmen were fighting over it. One was Andre Million and the other was François Dupré. They could not agree on the lot so they split it in two. Dupré opened what is today the George V hotel, and Million opened Prince de Galles next door.”

Paris was an effervescent cauldron of urban life in the 1920s. Though still recovering from WWI, the city bustled with writers and artists, from F Scott Fitzgerald to Ernest Hemmingway. Despite the two hotels opening in competition, they were effectively named after the same person: “The title ‘Prince de Galles’ – ‘Prince of Wales’ – was the title given to King George V,” tells Rusconi.

From its opening Prince de Galles enjoyed much success, attracting a host of important personalities, both French and international. “We had Winston Churchill as a guest in July 1938, right before the start of WWII. We have since had Lord Chamberlain, Marlene Dietrich and Alexander of Yugoslavia stay with us,” says Rusconi. Prince de Galles remained an exclusive hotel for personalities for much of the twentieth century, attracting some of the most important names in show business and politics.

“Another illustrious guest that has stayed with us has been ‘The King’. Elvis Presley visited the hotel in 1958, when he was 23 years old and was already known as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll; he was spending some time in Germany, and he visited Paris on three occasions, and became a regular until his passing in 1977,” says Rusconi. “We always attracted celebrity guests: Gina Lollobrigida, Michael Jackson, Gary Cooper and ZsaZsa Gabor have all stayed with us and made the Prince de Galles their home away from home.”

Golden location
Part of the reason for the hotel’s tremendous appeal is its location. Situated within the Triangle D’or – Paris’ Golden Triangle – the Prince de Galles is a stone’s throw from the most exclusive areas of Paris, like the Avenue Montaigne and the Rue Saint-Honoré and some of the city’s most famous architectural treasures. “Being in the heart of the city is
really an advantage for business travellers who can quickly reach meeting locations across Paris. We are only five minutes away from the Palais de Congrés, for example. Guests can also take advantage of the shopping on the famous Avenue George V, which is home to shops like Louis Vuitton and Hermès.”

In 2011, the hotel closed for the first real restoration since 1993. “The Musallam family of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, who have owned the hotel for two decades now, decided to continue the legacy of Prince de Galles with a full refurbishment,” explains Rusconi. “The redevelopment, led by Ertrim Architects, saw interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon transform the rooms, lobby and fitness centre while Bruno Borrione revamped the bar and restaurant.

“The Luxury Collection brand together with the hotel’s owners wanted to give back to the Prince de Galles its rich heritage as an art deco landmark. This is why they tasked Rochon, who has designed many five-star hotels in Paris, to recapture the hotel’s past and art deco heritage in the feel of the rooms. Bruno Borrione has a more contemporary style and his goal was to capture that in the bar, Les Heures, and restaurant, La Scène, our finest areas. But what is interesting is that the style of these two very distinctive designers really complement each other, because they both wanted to reflect the French identity and the unique character of Prince de Galles. We describe it as a bridge between historical heritage and modernity.”

Since the refurbishment the hotel has gained 44 luxuriously appointed suites and the magnificent Apartment Parisian. This duplex penthouse suite overlooks the city from the top floor of the hotel with breath-taking views of the Eiffel Tower, La Concorde and the Champs Elysées. A state-of-the-art fitness centre has been added while the Chaillot meeting room offers the latest in hi-tech conference facilities.

Art history
Because the main aim of the restoration was to bring Prince de Galles back to its art deco glory days, the building itself has been exquisitely conserved. Such extensive restoration work is expensive, but can produce some unexpected surprises. “When we converted the old banquet room into our new bar, we had to remove the carpet that lined the floor. As we lifted the carpet we found hidden under it this beautiful mosaic from the 1920s. It is original from when the hotel was built,” says Rusconi. “The same happened in the patio. So we have restored a series of original mosaics throughout the hotel, which had previously been hidden. Through these works of art we have brought back the history of the hotel.”

When Prince de Galles closed in 2011, it wanted to reward faithful guests from over the years and to share with them part of the hotel’s history. The toile de jouy installed during the last renovation in 1993 had been present in all the rooms, and a significant part of the hotel’s imagery, but the new restoration decided to go a different way and remove the distinctively French fabric from the walls. “But we wanted to create memorabilia from the hotel, so when we closed two years ago for refurbishment, we took this toile de jouy and created bags from it,” says Rusconi. “We gave them to our most loyal guests so they could take a piece of hotel history with them.” This created a further, enduring emotional connection between the hotel and its guests.

The driving force behind the 27-month restoration is the desire to modernise and offer state of the art facilities for high-end guests and Parisians alike. This is why the hotel has hired Stéphanie Le Quellec to open one of Paris’ first show-kitchen restaurants. “In French fine-dining restaurants the kitchens are actually hidden, and this is why we have called our restaurant La Scène, as the chef will be performing with her team every night,” explains Rusconi. “Guests will be able to see her coming up with these creative and wonderful dishes. The product will be the main ingredient and will lead the style of cooking.

“We want the hotel to be an international Parisian rendezvous, where international guests and citizens of Paris alike will be experiencing the Parisian scene.”

Paris

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Popularly depicted as a city where fashionistas traverse cobbled streets, where smoothly wooing men smoke Gauloises by the Seine, where a constant stream of photographers shoot glossy adverts of models lounging at café tables, Paris is synonymous with beauty and the spirit of advancement. To many, Paris is the artistic, literary and creative capital of the world. But despite the proliferation of picture-postcard clichés, the richness, intricacy and beauty of the city make it surprisingly hard to define.

Although the streets of Paris were once the choking maze of many post-industrial metropolises, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s essential modernisation programme in the latter half of the nineteenth century, cemented the Parisian urban sprawl as it is today. Departing from the tight confines of medieval city planning, Haussmann – appointed by Napoleon III – instilled coherence, in one of the largest urban
transformations in recent history. Departing from the narrow pathways of old, Paris set a new paradigm in city planning, as larger roadways allowed expansion from the centre and ease of navigation.

Haussmann moulded the streets of Paris into a geometric grid with carefully laid pathways neatly dividing the poles of the city, bringing symmetry and order to an otherwise unpredictable capital. A new architectural façade soon followed, creating a sense of visual unity, tied together by many monuments celebrating human greatness. But far from being a homogenous block of urban development, the city has grown organically into a rousing metropolis. Most importantly, Haussmann established districts that have since shaped the multiplicity of persona inhabiting the city. Whether it’s the artistically minded and liberal many of Montmartre or the ritzy few of Trocadéro, Paris is a haven to all thanks to the distinct personality of each district. Though the city plan is quite brilliant, it is not the layout itself that is unmistakably Parisian, but the way in which people have adapted to it. Each inhabitant plays a part in ensuring their district has its own aesthetic, particular to those living, working and thriving there.

Towering controversy
The plentiful characters that have populated Paris often sought to leave an indelible mark on the capital’s famous cityscape. Buildings such as the Arc de Triomphe, the Notre Dame and the Louvre are landmarks that have defined the French capital, but are also evidence of its continued allure for those capable of crafting such masterpieces.

Perhaps the most famous of all Parisian landmarks is the Eiffel Tower. The tower’s erection was contested by prominent figures of the French arts establishment, who claimed it defaced the Parisian cityscape. The Committee of Three Hundred decried: “We, writers, » painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection… of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower. All of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream and we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal.”

Despite many joining in this view, the “monstrous Eiffel tower” still stands as a bombastic statement against pre-conceived notions of what ‘should be’ – a sentiment since termed ‘Parisian determinedness’. So often, as the world has lambasted a departure from the norm, Paris has proved a fertile ground for individuality.

Fresh thinking
At a time when the rest of the world remained rooted to ancient notions of representation, in Paris the individuals responsible for a departure from artistic and literary norms were amassing. Prior to the twentieth century, art and literature were grounded in realist tradition; the Parisian movements signalled a drastic departure.

From the late nineteenth century, the Whiggish idea of history and civilisation as inherently progressive, and of progress as inherently good, were increasingly challenged. In Paris this opposition came from Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, George Braque and their associates. The opening of the twentieth century saw writers, philosophers and artists breaking from traditional aesthetics, producing abstract art, stream-of-consciousness writing and atonal music. Paris boldly hosted the rejection of realism and lingering certainties of enlightenment thinking.

As awareness of the pioneers of so-called modernism grew, many aspiring artists and writers were drawn to Paris in the hope of inspiration. James Joyce said: “There is an atmosphere of spiritual effort here… no other city is quite like it. It is a racecourse tension. I wake early, often at five o’clock, and start writing at once.” Ernest Hemingway wrote: “To have come on all this new world of writing, with time to read in a city like Paris where there was a way of living well and working, no matter how poor you were, was like having a great treasure given to you.” Lawrence Durrell was enamoured by Paris for many reasons: “The national characteristics… the restless metaphysical curiosity, the tenderness of good living and the passionate individualism. This is the invisible constant in a place with which the ordinary tourist can get in touch just by sitting quite quietly over a glass of wine in a Paris bistro.”

Paris’ relationship with modern art has perhaps contributed the most to the city’s reputation as an inspiration for new means and mediums of creative achievement. The city has hosted a fantastic breadth of literature and art, and is presently home to a great number of talented figures.

Setting the standard
From Paris, many of the most radical and revolutionary ideas to have shaped present day popular culture have sprung forth. Being home to some of the greatest thinkers of our time, the city has played an integral role in changing both artistic and philosophic norms.

Though the French capital is synonymous with fine dining, haute couture, romance and artistry, there are many more layers to understanding the past, present and future significance of Paris. Its multiplicity of personalities, its explosive and revolutionary domestic history and the glamour of its streets have had a deep impact on political movments and cultural trends across the globe. But better still, all these endeavours have shaped the Paris of today, a city that can only truly be appreciated first hand.

Where to eat

moulin-rouge

Moulin Rouge

82 Boulevard de Clichy
+33 1 5309 8282 | moulinrouge.fr

Situated in the famously liberal Monmarte district, Le Moulin Rouge is the most famous cabaret in the world housed by one of the city’s most iconic buildings. Founded in 1889 by Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller, the venue’s balls gained immediate popularity, thanks in great part to the French Cancan and its dancers, the Chahuteuses (the unruly girls). Today’s incarnation, the Féerie, involves 80 artists, including 60 feather-clad Doriss girls, who treat the audience to circus, pirate and historically themed dances, as well as the infamous Cancan. The luxurious dinner options cover duck fillet, fried sea bass, and beef, with a range of exquisitely prepared French sides. Expect pungent cheeses and patisserie classics to follow.

pans

L’atelier de Jöel Robuchon

5 rue de Montalembert
+33 1 4222 5656 | joel-robuchon.net

Renowned French chef Jöel Robuchon operates acclaimed restaurants around the world, two of which are in Paris. The Saint-Germain branch, designed by Pierre-Yves Rochon, consists of an open kitchen, where an intimate circle of 40 guests can watch their Michelin-starred food being skilfully prepared. There are a number of menus to choose from, including the incredible nine-course taster menu. At €199 per person, it’s still exceptionally good value for food of this standard. L’atelier does a particularly good steak, as well as more exotic dishes such as caviar with smoked eel potatoes. The restaurant’s informal set-up means it is also perfect for the solo diner, solving a common business travel dilemma.

meatLe Chateaubriand

129 Avenue de Parmentier
+33 1 4357 4595 | lechateaubriand.net

Regularly lauded as one of the world’s best restaurants, having ranked in the top 15 of the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for the last two years, Le Chateaubriand is famed for leading the quintessentially Parisian, néo-bistro renaissance. Head Chef and co-founder Iñaki Aizpitarte learnt the secrets of French cuisine at a number of notable Parisian restaurants, having first learnt the basics of cooking as a dishwasher in Serbia. In 2006 he opened Le Chateaubriand with friend Frédéric Peneau; it was declared Le Fooding’s Best Restaurant in its inaugural year. The five-course, €60 tasting menu is full of surprising combinations and varies by night according to the fresh ingredients available at local markets.

EU Horizons

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

News of Croatia’s planned entry into the EU was greeted with subdued celebrations. Across the country there is a tangible split between the anxious and the optimistic. January saw 66 percent of voters ticking the ‘yes’ box, but with only 43 percent of the electorate turning out, theregistered approval represents a mere third of the Balkan nation.

The circumstances were dubbed “not great, but legal” by Prime Minister Zoran Milanović. The ‘no’ camp disagrees. They believe the referendum was entirely misrepresentative. “This result is against the interests of the Croatian people,” claims Željko Sačić, war veteran and leading Euro-sceptic. “This is the end of Croatia’s freedom. The EU is falling apart and the Croatian man will be worse off than today.” Amid protests against the so-called oppression of joining the federation, Croatia’s slowing economy demands change to revive employment figures and growth.

A Brussels correspondent for a number of Croatian newspapers, Sabalić, claimed the prevailing feeling surrounding EU membership is one of fear. Croatia’s decision to again join a union of nations bears little semblance to a recent history of independence – following the breakup of Yugoslavia – and, as such, has incited massive public anxiety. Sabalić otherwise maintains that the vast majority of Croats see themselves as part of Europe already, having looked west, not east, in prior times of struggle.

Croatian economics
The nation’s economy is largely service-based, with the tertiary sector comprising 70 percent of the region’s GDP. This originally stood at 335.5bn Croatian kuna in 2010, but has since contracted steadily at a yearly average of 1.4 percent. Croatia’s industrial sector contributes over 7.6bn kuna in exports annually. Much of this is dominated by shipbuilding, accounting for approximately ten percent of exported goods, with both food processing and the chemical industry a significant proportion of the remaining industrial exports. The sector constitutes 25 percent of GDP and 27 percent of total economic output, whereas agriculture counts for six percent of output and – along with forestry and fishing – the remaining five percent of Croatian GDP.

The Croatian agriculture sector primarily subsists of blue water fish, thanks to a recent spike in demand from both Japan and South Korea. The region is a significant producer of organic food, much of which is exported across the EU, with Croatian wines, olive oil and lavender oil ardently sought after.

Further bolstering the weakened economy is Croatia’s growing tourism sector, demonstrating consistently good figures through the summer months and more recently experiencing a surge during winter too. Croatia’s tourism industry attracts in excess of ten million foreign tourists annually, generating yearly revenue above €7bn.

Croatia is set to receive €450m in funds from the EU in the latter half of 2013, as well as a further €1.1bn in 2014. These sums look to be of vital importance as the nation pushes to develop a better infrastructure and implement further environmental projects. Deputy Premier Branko Grčič said: “Meanwhile, we will do our best to strengthen our capacities and mechanisms for the absorption.”

Broken reforms
In December, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) downgraded Croatia’s sovereign debt credit rating from an assured BB+ to a considerably less attractive BB-. The nation’s newly inherited junk-status is the highest non-investment level, equal to that of Greece and Portugal respectively. The agency further stated that: “The government’s capacity to rebalance the economy toward exports is intrinsically limited.

“The country’s EU accession is a positive development. However, the European environment and the government’s reform inertia are likely to limit the benefits normally expected to arise.” The criticisms have since been supplemented by the EU and IMF; both urged Croatia to focus more on reform, especially regarding privatisation of state assets and liberalisation of labour legislation.

The region is a significant producer of organic food, with Croatian wines, olive oil and lavender oil ardently sought after

Croatian business consultant Vedran Antoljak maintains that Moody’s downgrade in February reflected the government’s apparent unwillingness to pursue broad reform. “There is a lot of talking about real reforms but there have been no changes,” he said. “The downgrade will eventually increase the cost of capital and make it harder to access for most Croatian businesses except perhaps the two biggest, Agrokor and Atlantic Grupa [both food and retail companies].” Whereas most Croatians anticipate big changes upon joining the EU, Antoljak maintains the importance of reform above all else. “I don’t think that membership will change much immediately – the investors who want to be here are here already.”

Having achieved independence by breaking from Yugoslavia, the anticipated neoliberal economic policies – expected to spell a departure from socialism and signal an embracing of free trade and open markets – is yet to be implemented. On the contrary, the ailing nation is heavily de-industrialised, with a severe lack of strategic industry. The circumstances have lead many esteemed analysts to consider a socialist alternative to oppose the current neoliberal stance currently taking the nation from a recession to long-term economic depression.

Slow down
“We believe that the government’s fiscal resolve has weakened, leaving structural budgetary weaknesses, such as high personnel and social expenditures, which together make up just under three-quarters of central government spending, unaddressed.” S&P predict Croatia will remain – as it has since 2009 – in a state of either recession or stagnation until the close of 2013. The region’s economic outlook remains uncertain beyond this, and looks to continue along an all-too-familiar path; GDP has fallen over four consecutive quarters. Croatia’s external debts have surpassed GDP, these circumstances being indebted to a waning industrial production capacity and a progressively shrinking base of public investment.

Adding to economic woes, unemployment is rising. Currently 20.4 percent are out of work, according to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, not far from the 26 percent of crisis-hit Greece and Spain and a greater figure than those seen in bailed-out Portugal and Ireland.

Mislav Žitko, political analyst for the Centre for Labour Studies, points to the government’s lack of strategy and the near redundancy of the Croatian National Bank in sustaining the crisis. “The CNB was unable to implement timely measures… to protect the most vulnerable segments of the population from the negative effects of credit expansion.” The Croatian economy didn’t grow in 2011, contracted 1.9 percent in 2012, and is expected to plunge a further 0.4 percent in 2013. However, the European Commission has since predicted that these figures will precede “modest growth” through 2014.

With the eurozone’s 2013 expansion forecast at 0.4 percent – and inherent expectancies of Croatia aligning more with the bloc – prominent economists such as Dubravko Radošević (Institute of Economics, Zagreb) argue that radical cuts to spending and a steadfast tendency towards austerity would severely hamper the economy. Radošević suggests a new monetary strategy to target prevailing issues of rising unemployment and investment attractiveness, these being the key factors in returning growth to the
Croatian economy.

Yugoslav retreat
With the split from socialist Yugoslavia two decades ago, Croatia’s accession to the EU will mark a distinct break from an era of nationalism and war, which has characterised the region’s recent past.

Having completed negotiations with Brussels last year, and assuming there are no further matters to complicate proceedings, Croatia looks to become the EU’s 28th member state and the second ex-Yugoslav state to join, after Slovenia in 2004. A notably waning enthusiasm for further expansion throughout the EU is indicative of neighbouring countries (Bosnia, Albania and Serbia) being unlikely candidates for adoption anytime soon.

Many Croats hope for a conversion to the euro and improved access to the bloc’s common market to signal the coming of economic stability in place of steady recession. Though the EU has undergone a comprehensive struggle through much of the financial crisis, Croatia’s willingness to join suggests that the association hasn’t quite lost its appeal.

Croatia’s top industries

 
tourism

Tourism

The tourism industry comprises 20 percent of Croatia’s GDP. This sector has experienced promising and consistent spurts of growth, despite a general economic downturn. Croatia last year registered 12.3 million tourists visiting its shores, a five percent rise on 2011 when the industry was valued at €6.61bn. With the nation’s adoption into the EU, tourism is expected to demonstrate similarly promising growth in 2013. “For people from the EU, travel will become easier,” said Meri Matešic´, Director of the Croatian tourist board. “They will not need passports anymore. Croatia will effectively become a domestic market for half a billion people.” Many have compared Croatia to Slovenia — a nation that experienced impressive growth through similar circumstances.

shipbuilding

Shipbuilding

Croatia’s capacity for shipbuilding is integral to its present industrial output. Estimated to account for ten percent of overall exports, the nation hopes EU membership will further its prospects in the sector. The restructuring of its heavily subsidised shipyards was integral to Croatia’s acceptance into the EU. As a condition of entry, it has pledged to implement a €1.7bn shipyard restructuring plan by 2022, anticipated to retain 2,500 of the 3,300 workers currently employed. In March of this year, Croatia successfully privatised its largest shipyard, Brodosplit. It is soon expected to finalise the sale of its sole remaining state-owned shipyard in Rijeka. Nationwide, over 10,000 people are employed in the shipyards, which are estimated to have made losses of €3.7bn in the past 20 years.

Agriculture

Agriculture

Croatia’s population of 4.5 million (less than one percent of the EU) and its utilised agricultural area of 1.3 million hectares is of very little consequence to wider global markets. However, Croatia’s self-sufficiency in arable products, and its near self-sufficiency for the vast majority of livestock products, require minimal funds in the importing of agricultural goods to supplement supply. Within Croatia there is considerable concern regarding the element of competition that accompanies entering the EU. Farmers and producers have accordingly been instructed to organise cooperatives and clusters to better protect against the European market and to further reduce costs and boost competitiveness. Moreover, Croatia’s high VAT rate will yield higher food prices for agricultural products.

Jet set-tiquette

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

With over 45 years of jetting with the set, trotting the globe with the crowd that’s in, and living la business vida loca, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been regaled by fellow Britons on the fickleness of Frenchmen, the snootiness of Spaniards, the gruffness of Germans and the insolence of Italians; in fact, the sheer lack of polite etiquette of every other nationality under the sun from Australian to Austrian, Alaskan to Arab, Yanks to Yoruba.
Out there beyond Heathrow, went the message, the fine art of British manners was non-existent. Upon landing at a foreign airport you needed to hold your tongue and keep your temper as you encountered rudeness of a magnitude and style that didn’t exist here. Creepy Krauts, snubbing Swedes and snarling Slavs were just waiting to ignore your pleases and thank yous.

Etiquette slide
Well, as the poet Robbie Burns once wrote: “Wad some pow’r the giftie gie us, to see ourselves as ithers see us.” I’m slowly unwrapping that giftie and getting the message. Flying into British airports now, it feels as if this is the foreign land that greets you with a leer and a frown. Far from it being the land of good manners, it’s rapidly becoming an etiquette-bereft zone, with sneering apparatchiks who act like pensioned-off jobsworths from a former Soviet satellite. United States immigration used to be the byword for downright in-yer-face sullen rudeness, and the queues were always immense. How different back in Blighty as the cheery Brit in civvies waved you through with just a glimpse at the old blue-backed British passport. No longer.

I recently had an extended trip to Southern France and even the frontier policewoman at Toulouse Blagnac airport wished me, “Avez un bon sejour, m’sieu,” as she handed back my passport (something incidentally we wouldn’t even need if we’d been euro-friendly and savvy enough to sign up for the Schengen agreement). On my last trip to America the armed-to-the-teeth official scanned my super-duper stay-as-long-as-you-like visa and grinned, “Welcome home sir”.

Contrast that with my return to the sprawling hell that is now Gatwick earlier this year. Gone are the days when you walked through immigration in a minute. Now it’s the UK Border Agency – a cheap copy of America’s Homeland Security, I imagine. And if where they sit is the border and you’re crossing it, what pray, is the chunk of parquet I’m standing on before I get to the booth… no man’s land?

Crossing borders
Almost eight minutes walk from the gate, then twelve-and-a-half in line to show my passport (and that’s fast, I’m told), channelled down corner after right-angled corner like a white rat in a lab experiment, but with no rewarding cheese at the end. Eventually the unsmiling geezer in what appears to be a 1970s Securicor uniform takes my passport and scans it. He waits. And waits. Hell, I bought a computer from Alan Sugar back in the eighties that worked faster than this. Eventually, the computer reacts. He then looks closely at my photograph, and looks at me. Back at the picture. Back at me. Puh-lease. How hard is this? Are Al-Qaeda really employing late-middle-aged men in suits now?

That ordeal over, I walk to the nearest bureau de change, whose brand name was new to me. Two female cashiers. No customers. Neither woman acknowledges me in any way. I choose one. She eventually looks up and regards me like I’m something a dog walker neglected to scoop. I hand her 135 euros. She tap-taps. “Eighty-one pounds.” Surely that’s absurdly low? She sighs deeply and shows me the screen. I say I’ll decline, thanks. Without a word or glance she pushes the money back at me. A €50 note goes fluttering to the floor; welcome to Britain. Clearly our airports have become rip-off joints too – at my local Tesco I got £105 for those euros, a difference worth a bottle of their
house-brand champagne.

What the hell has gone wrong with us? Airports, as I’ve said here before, are my second home, and I’ll warrant yours too. Why have ours, the first bit of Britain any foreigner sees, become so downright unfriendly?

The opening line of the novel The Go-Between reads, “The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.” Now Britain frequently feels like a foreign country – and they do things differently there. But in the past – they didn’t. bd

Reflections on impressionism

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Take a trip to San Francisco this summer and you will find a city obsessed with sailing. The world’s oldest sporting event, the America’s Cup, is coming to town for the first time in its 152-year history and it’s all hands on deck for the Californian metropolis.
To celebrate this momentous occasion, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) is recalling another moment when the public imagination was gripped by sailing. Impressionists on the Water is a group show exploring how nineteenth-century painters, such as Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, engaged with sailing, yachting and other pleasure boating activities in their work. The exhibition is taking place at the Legion of Honour, a museum overlooking the mouth of San Francisco Bay from its enviable location on high ground in Land’s End park, in the far north-west of the city.

Wind in the sails
As settings go for such a show, this one is hard to beat. FAMSF has presented a number of impressionism exhibitions over the last few years, including Monet in Normandy at the Legion of Honour in 2006 and two shows at the de Young Museum presented jointly with the Musée d’Orsay in 2010 called Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay and Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay. But given the movement’s fascination for life on the water, not to mention the presence in FAMSF’s collection of numerous impressive examples of impressionist works addressing this motif, presenting a show on the subject was too good an opportunity to miss.

“It’s a really nice moment for the city to have this artistic and sporting
conversation,” says Melissa Buron, Assistant Curator of European Art at FAMSF. “There will be many people visiting the city to see the America’s Cup races that will hopefully be attracted to this exhibition as well.”

Featuring such paintings as Monet’s resplendent Boats Moored at Le Petit-Gennevilliers (Sailboats on the Seine), 1874, the show looks into the socio-cultural context that produced these works. Buron describes how the rise of the railway in the mid- to late-nineteenth century ushered in an era which he deems was dominated by “a new middle class” with the unique ability to engage in some of the new activities like boating, yachting and sailing. He continues: “And the impressionist artists, being so fascinated with modern life and capturing the world around them, get caught up in this fascination with leisure activity as well.”

Water works
The artists took part in the sport too, the show reveals, some even designing and building their own boats. Buron is particularly excited about a ‘half model’ of a boat called Le Roastbeef, built by the artist Gustave Caillebotte in 1892. The painting in which the craft appears, Regatta at Argenteuil, 1893, hangs alongside it. Also on display is a full-size skiff similar to the ones represented in other paintings by the artist.

The hope is that by presenting not just paintings but also boats, models and the plannings of works on paper, visitors will gain insights into the lives and passions of these artists. “We think that we know the impressionists so well because there have been so many ways of treating them in exhibitions, but this facet of the impressionists as sailors and artists and really partaking in the activities that they were representing in their compositions is a really important point to make,” says Buron.

Another reason that the impressionists were so drawn to this world was the enormous potential of water as a subject for their innovative new methods. These painters were seeking to capture the play of light on different surfaces, reflection and movement; water was the ideal motif with which
to experiment.

Onshore impressions
Yet not all the impressionists favoured waterscapes. While Monet was churning out his hugely atmospheric depictions of the coast, rivers and ponds, Camille Pissarro was focusing on rural landscapes populated by hardworking labourers. Pissarro was the only artist to be involved in all eight of the impressionist group exhibitions in Paris in the 1870s and 1880s and is considered by many to be the patriarch of impressionism, but he never achieved anything like the success of his contemporaries, either during his lifetime or since.

Guillermo Solana is the Artistic Director of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, which is presenting Pissarro – Spain’s first ever monographic of the painter – this summer. He acknowledges that the artist’s relative obscurity could be partly due to his more earthy focus.

“Impressionism could be much more spectacular applied to water – and more itself. Pure impressionism had to be a painting of water and Pissarro was too much of a builder, a constructor, to let himself go to those extremes of fluidness. That damaged his success for some years.”

Solana also points to Pissarro’s “profound interest in the life of the working classes” as the main characteristic that differentiates his work from the likes of Monet’s “very bourgeois-orientated painting”. It is therefore unsurprising perhaps that there are just two works by Pissarro in the Legion of Honour show, an exhibition with a strong emphasis on middle-class pastimes.

In praise of Pissaro
But despite being overshadowed during his lifetime and beyond, the artist is finally receiving the sort of attention many believe he deserves; Solana talks about “a movement to vindicate, to rehabilitate the figure of Pissarro” that’s been taking form in recent years. In 2011-12 in fact, the Legion of Honour presented Pissarro’s People, an exhibition exploring the artist’s interest in the human figure, with a particular focus on his political inclinations. Solana describes Pissarro’s work as “a different kind of impressionism” and is delighted to be able “to show this recovered Pissarro to the public, this artist coming back from oblivion”.

Central to the artist’s rebirth is the acknowledgment of his role as a painter bridging the gap between the French landscape tradition of the
nineteenth century and the next
generation. While it appears that Monet had no disciples to speak of, Pissarro surrounded himself with younger
artists – he was admired and looked up to by pioneers of modern art such as Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh. “He was the man of the future,” says Solana.

Impressionists on the Water runs from June 1 to October 13 at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, US (legionofhonor.famsf.org). Pissarro runs from June 4 to September 15 at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain (museothyssen.org)

Business Travel Events, Summer 2013

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Techweek ‘13
June 27-29
Chicago

Although this is only its third year, Chicago’s Techweek has consistently attracted big-name speakers and big attendee numbers. This year, 8,000 people are expected to show, while speakers include: Microsoft’s Stefan Weitz; Emerson Spartz, CEO of Spartz Media and most famous for founding MuggleNet aged 12; and Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress. The Techweek Expo has 150 exhibitors lined up, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, showing off their latest innovations.
www.techweek.com

Wikimania
August 7-11
Hong Kong

Every year a different local team organises the annual international conference of the Wikimedia movement. In 2013, the ninth annual conference comes to Hong Kong Polytechnic University and promises frank discussion about the ‘Great Firewall of China’ and editing wars over controversial China-related topics on English Wikipedia. There will also be talks on the relationship between the website and the public sector, and the ‘dark side’ of Wikipedia, including trolling and exiled editors.
www.wikimania2013.wikimedia.org

Magic Market Week
August 19-21
Las Vegas

Magic Market Week draws together an influential network of buyers and brands from the world of clothing, accessories and footwear. Trends are forecast, businesses gain exposure and thousands of items are sold. The event stimulates more onsite business than any other fashion trade fair, with an average $200m of orders taken per day. Seminars cover visual merchandising, sourcing talent and embracing ecommerce. Special events include cocktail parties and an exhibition on the Chinese market.
www.magiconline.com

Gamescom
August 21-25
Cologne

Gamescom is Europe’s biggest trade fair for interactive entertainment. Held in Cologne, the event is open to trade professionals and gaming enthusiasts alike and drew in 275,000 visitors in 2012. This year Nintendo returns to head the bill alongside Microsoft, who will be unveiling the next-generation Xbox. Gamescom features exposition zones, workshops and lectures, alongside exhibitions about the history of gaming, an outdoor beach and sensational live gaming spectacles.
www.gamescom.de

Contact us

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

General enquiries
General enquiries about the website or magazine should be made to our headquarters in London at:

Business Destinations
40 Compton Street
London
EC1V 0BD
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7253 5100
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7553 4160
Email: enquiries@businessdestinations.com

Web and technical enquiries
webteam@businessdestinations.com

Media enquiries
Richard Willcox
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7253 5100
Email: richard@wnmedia.com

Stuart White gets the economy class blues

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

This column has had so many gripes it’s begun to resemble a nursery full of two-month- old quintuplets in the midst of a rampant colic epidemic. In it I’ve raged about awful airports, terrible taxis, horrendous hotels, rascally receptionists, rapacious restaurateurs, and even flatulent fellow passengers.

I’ve lashed out at just about every part of what has become the Dante’s Inferno of modern-day travel. One woman emailed to say she considered me the Anti-Christ of travel writers. Well the Fallen Angel recently had a road to Damascus moment – if that’s not going a religious metaphor too far.

So this is in the nature of an Anti-Rant with just a Mini-Rant thrown in later about the Passengers Who Just Can’t Be Satisfied. So for now as briefly poacher-turned-gamekeeper I’m looking on the bright side and giving both barrels to those other travel monsters for a change.

The ogres I’ve got in mind are not even professional travellers. Instead once or perhaps twice a year they pack the fake Samsonite and get a mini-cab to Luton Airport, East Midlands, Stansted or Gatwick for their flight to the Costa del Crappola.

But to hear them talk you think they’d been kidnapped and shipped in chains on the Bad Ship Amistad to a life of slavery. And I’m qualified to have a go at them because, as I acidly wrote in a moan and groan column some years back, even business travellers take a holiday.

I recounted the horror of it all. The cramped seat on the banned-in-several countries airline; the middle-of-the-night landing in some strange fly-blown aerodrome; the wet-behind-the-ears holiday rep with her estuarial whiney drone; the poolside littered with tattooed smoking chavs; wine that could strip both make-up and skin from Coronation Street’s Bet Lynch.

But praise where praise is due. Last year I was forced by circumstance to take a holiday in the worst possible month to travel – August. Airports packed, planes delayed, beaches full. Do I need to send a detailed postcard on this one?

When I rolled up with the partner and daughter to Gatwick, mouth dry and stomach churning, I expected the worst. Half-finished building work, packed concourses, sour staff, interminable check-in, long waits at security, and a frisking that would result in an indecent assault charge if you or I tried it.

Instead it was a dream. A long escalator whisked us up to the concourse where a charming employee directed us to our check-in desk. In seven minutes – I counted each one – we had our boarding cards. Then security; ah the dreaded security, that terrible imposition on our civil liberties.

It was now eight a.m. and these people had started their hardly-above-minimum-wage jobs at four. Yet they were courtesy itself. Even the frisk was painless, although it tickled a little.

But out unscathed in minutes, into the departure lounge and breakfast at a charming little place serving fresh croissants and marvellous coffee. Then off to spacious Duty-Free shops. A Garden of Eden compared with some hell-holes I’ve been through.

The serpents in this particular Paradise were not the staff but the passengers. Queuing at WH Smith’s where FIVE assistants busily and efficiently dealt with a never-ending queue of customers, some sour-faced old Scrooge off to Malta was cross at being made to wait two minutes to buy his Daily Telegraph.
At the perfume counter a perma-tanned bottle-blonde sighed theatrically and impatiently as she clutched her Duty-Free Dior. All because there was ONE customer in front of her.

A fellow passenger who I doubt had previously travelled further than Margate, was indignant when security asked him to remove his shoes? Hello moron! Remember Richard Reid, shoe bomber?

Then on the trouble-free flight down to Greece as I gazed in awe – as I always do – at the majestic Alps a grumpy old matron behind me asked me to pull my blind down, the better for her to watch Night at the Museum 2.

Yet fifty-nine minutes after touchdown I was checking into my hotel. I’ve waited that long for my baggage to slither listlessly out onto the carousel while travelling with major airlines.

OK I’ve unashamedly polished my halo instead of being Devil’s advocate this issue, so full marks to everyone at Gatwick and Thomson Holidays and a loud raspberry to the professional moaners. In future leave the gripes to pros – because very soon after that I was back to business travel and that’s another story. Sanctuary!

200th years of Petra, Jordan

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Today the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan faces the frustrating dilemma of being blessed with an abundance of economic potential but also incubating extensive unrest and dissatisfaction, especially among of its very large young population.

Out of a population of about 6,100,000, around 70 percent is aged 30 or less, and 50 percent is aged under 18. With these young people being socially aware and internet-savvy, they’re only too aware of problems of unemployment, poverty and some government corruption.

Jordan is classified by the World Bank as a ‘lower middle income country’. The current unemployment figure is hard to ascertain with precision, as the official figure of about 13 percent is a great contrast to unofficial estimates of about 30 percent. What’s certain is that education and literary rates and other indicators of social prosperity are relatively high compared to other nations with similar incomes.

While many of even the most dissatisfied young people would most likely grudgingly concede that they’re better off than those of similar age in nearby Arab states, ideas triggering social unrest travel easily across national borders today and arguably often get magnified during the journey.

Besides, even in Jordan, where about 27 percent of the population earns less than US$500 a month and a further 28 percent earns only between US$500 and US$1,000, there’s no avoiding the fact that much of the social unrest and dissatisfaction is rooted in sheer poverty. There’s also a general feeling that too much power remains vested in the monarchy, and that moves to full democracy in Jordan are taking too long.

Still, there’s no denying that the Jordanian monarchy is attractive. Any economic analysis of Jordan tends to start with the observation that Jordan is a country without any natural resources. While that is true in relation to fossil fuels, the absence of which is one factor why Jordan’s Gross National Income (GNI) of around US$4,700 is low compared to its oil-rich Arab neighbours, one could argue that, in King Abdullah II and his wife Queen Rania, Jordan has two valuable natural resources.

King Abdullah, born in 1962, attended Deerfield Academy, Massachusetts and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in Britain followed by spending a year at Oxford University on a one-year Special Studies course in Middle Eastern affairs. The epitome of the modern Middle Eastern king, he speaks flawless English without an accent, and while he is capable of firm action when necessary he has a genial and warm-hearted, positive nature. A keen fan of science-fiction, in 1996 while still a prince he even appeared in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager.

Back on Earth, the king has been credited with playing a vital role in improving the economy since he began his reign in 1999. Specifically, he’s seen even by his distractors as substantially responsible for increasing foreign investment, improving public-private partnerships, providing the foundation for an important free trade zone at Aqaba, Jordan’s only significant sea-port, and for creating other special development zones in the nation. The king also made a commitment in 2007 to the peaceful use of nuclear power in order to reduce Jordan’s otherwise almost complete dependence on imported oil and gas. The first nuclear power plant in Jordan is scheduled to open in 2015.

Today, the annual rate of economic growth in Jordan, six percent annually, is a considerable improvement over the period of relative economic stagnation that prevailed in Jordan during the 1990s.

The king’s wife, Queen Rania, born in Kuwait in 1970, holds an MBA from the American University in Cairo. She has worked for Citibank in a marketing role and also at Apple Inc. in the Jordanian capital, Amman. One of the best-known women in the Islam world, the queen is a widely respected spokesperson for Islamic womanhood. In a recent TV interview in New York she firmly stated that Islam is not a religion that subjugates women but that sometimes people in the Islamic world have found it in their interests to hold women back. In the same interview, the queen observed that it has often been the case that when the going gets tough for an Islamic country, the women of that nation have often wound up getting a bad deal.

Today, Jordan has more free trade agreements (FTAs) than any other Arab country. Jordan currently has FTAs with the United States, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, the European Union, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Turkey and Syria and is planning several more.

Jordan’s strong leadership from the king and queen is regarded as an important plus point of the country from a political and economic perspective, as is a skilled workforce, while increased foreign investment and a rise in exports are the major factors that fuel economic growth. Yet there is a general feeling in Jordan that strong leadership from the royal family needs to be tempered with a more rapid democratisation.

There are economic downsides too. In particular Jordan suffers from scarce water supplies, in effect complete reliance on imported oil and political instability in some of its regions. The poverty is partly due to only about ten percent of Jordan’s territory being available for arable farming, and even that is dependent on limited water supplies.

Jordan’s economic resource base, and also its main source of hard currency earnings, includes the production of phosphates, potash and their fertiliser derivatives, as well as tourism, overseas remittances and foreign aid. Its industries – also significant earners of hard currency – include the textile, aerospace, defence, ICT, pharmaceutical and cosmetics.

Some regional instability has dogged Jordan ever since its foundation as a nation in 1946. Jordan is arguably simply too recent a creation in political terms for it to enjoy great stability in what is after all a comparatively early stage of its history. All the same, ever since King Abdullah came to power, the nation had enjoyed relative political calmness, or at least it did until February and March 2011, when Jordan suffered riots in several regions. The king has been dealing with the problems by continuing to focus on economic growth, and, many would say, listening harder to calls for shifting more of the royal power into the hands of the Jordanian government and parliament. The king’s response to the riots that happened earlier this year came to a head in October 2011, when he sacked his prime minister and the entire cabinet due to their too-slow implementation of political reform.

Many see this development as indicating the king’s real commitment to change. Certainly, no-one doubts his love of his nation, or his willingness to learn. As he said in public when talking about the nation he rules: “We move forward. Sometimes you get knocked down. You have to dust yourself up and keep trying”.

Yet overall, in Jordan it’s broadly true that it’s not money that’s the root of all evil, but poverty. King Abdullah, for all his charm, intelligence and national pride, is unlikely to find that his economic and political initiatives will affect any lasting reduction in that social unrest and dissatisfaction until greater general prosperity in Jordan make significant poverty a thing of the past.

Christiania celebrates 40 years of bohemia

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

In parts, it has the atmosphere of a village from bygone days where people greet each other and children play happily in the car-free streets; an oasis of tranquillity with trees and abundant plant life, bound by water and peppered with an eclectic mix of colourful dwellings. But this is not a snapshot of life years ago; this is the twenty-first century in the centre of a major cosmopolitan capital city.

In the heart of Copenhagen is the self-proclaimed Freetown of Christiania, famous for being one of the biggest and oldest squatter movements in the world. It has developed today into a semi self-governing state within Copenhagen, having celebrated its 40th birthday late last year, it lays claim to being one of the longest-existing alternative societies in the western world. But it has not all been rosy for Christiania, which has been a bone of contention since its establishment in 1971.

Throughout the years, it has courted controversy, revered by some as a successful social experiment and abhorred by others as a criminal drug den. Not only that, but it also occupies valuable land, ripe for redevelopment, in the heart of a capital city.

Christiania was established on a disused eighteenth century navy barracks in the 1970s and, in spite of its turbulent relations with the government, has grown, not only into a popular residential area – there are about 30 to 50 applicants for every room that becomes vacant – but also one of Copenhagen’s major tourist attractions. Visitors include tourists to » Copenhagen, intrigued by this unique area, as well as business people wanting to show clients a different side of Danish society and groups of Danish primary school children being taught about alternative ways of living.

Christiania sees itself as a free haven for those who do not want to conform to Danish society, and has attracted many artisans, idealists and intellectuals as well as the much-publicised homeless people and cannabis users. Today, Christiania has a hedonistic atmosphere, with a lively and diverse centre full of restaurants, cafes, a cinema, nightclubs, shops, museums and music venues, such as Musikloppen, which attracts musicians from around the world, as well as the infamous Pusher Street where cannabis is openly available to buy. The centre of Christiania is also characterised by multi-story apartment buildings, adorned with colourful murals, and towering life-size statues of Buddha next to massive sculptures made of recycled materials. Moving outwards from the central area, Christiania becomes more forested, with idiosyncratic houses peppered along the water’s edge or in clusters forming the individual neighbourhoods that make up many of Christiania’s micro-societies.

Christiania is divided into 15 different areas, which have monthly meetings to make their own local decisions, while bigger meetings are held for any issues that affect the whole community. Residents govern themselves by consensus, and there is no single prime minister or president, instead every adult resident having an equal participation in the governance of Christiania. It even has its own currency, the Løn, which is paid to all who work there and is accepted in all Christiania’s businesses, although the Danish Krone is also accepted. Christianites pay income taxes to the Danish state, and pay for electricity, water and waste disposal. It all sounds like an amazing success story for those proponents of alternative living, but although Christiania has survived 40 years, its history is studded with conflict and constant threat of eviction.

Christiania’s story starts in 1971, at a time when there was a severe lack of affordable housing in Copenhagen. With rental and purchase prices soaring, many apartments remained empty. The Danish military had also left a former 18th century navy fort, and squatters started to move in. At first, the fences were brought down and the area was used as a playground for children, but in 1971 a group of around 700 radical free thinkers, anarchists, idealists and hippies moved in and decided to create an alternative society based on communal living and freedom, a self governing society “whereby each and every individual holds themselves responsible for the wellbeing of the entire community”, according to its subsequent mission statement. While the occupation of privately owned houses was soon made illegal, the government was unable to force the occupants of the military terrain out of the area, and it then agreed to recognise Christiania as a ‘social experiment’, allowing the squatters to stay.

However, a change in government later in the 1970s led to its status as a social experiment being withdrawn, and decades of legal battles followed. Christiania’s open tolerance of the illegal selling of cannabis has been a bone of contention with successive governments since its creation. Although illegal in Denmark, the government for many years did not stop the trade of the drug in Christiania with some officials believing it was better to concentrate the drugs trade in one area.

Christiania’s conflicts were not all against the state. There were also internal troubles. Despite its stance on soft drugs it has never sanctioned the selling of hard drugs, but heroine and speed spread to its terrain in the late 1970s, and some gangs used Christiania as a hideout to protect them from rival gangs, bringing violence to the area.

The authorities tolerated Christiania’s cannabis trade until 2004, after which followed years of government attempts to introduce measures to “normalise” the legal status of the community, which result in considerable conflict. In 2001, a Liberal Conservative government came into power and pledged to end the sale of cannabis in Christiania and to redevelop the area. The government planned to invest around 300m krone in the refurbishment of the historic military buildings and sell off the rights for property development. But this was met with significant resistance, not only from Christiania residents but also people who lived in Copenhagen itself, and around 7,000 people protested against the move. In 2004 heavy-handed police raids were carried out, reputedly to rid the area of hard drugs. Cynics, however, believe the police actions were more likely driven by the state’s desire to reclaim Christiania for real estate development.

Covering 85 acres of greenery and canals just a short walk from the centre of Copenhagen, Christiania occupies a veritable real estate treasure chest. As time went on police raids became more frequent often leading to violent clashes with residents and other Christiania sympathisers. One of Christiania’s recent flashpoints was in May 2007 when the government decided to demolish an abandoned building in Christiania. Residents feared it was the first step towards forced eviction. They built roadblocks and attacked trucks transporting the remains of the building. The police retaliated by sending in more forces who were pelted with stones, fireworks and Molotov cocktails. Eventually the police retreated.

Court proceedings against the residents were initiated, and continued for several years, with the Supreme Court upholding a 2009 ruling that the state held the legal right to the land occupied by Christiania. Just as the balance seemed to be tipping in the state’s favour and media headlines shouted of Christiania’s certain demise, a deal was struck to allow the commune to continue to occupy the area but in a more “legitimised” form. The government agreed to shelve its plans for the building of roads and property in the area and allow the community to buy property at a rock-bottom price of 3,500 krone per square metre, well below market value, and to rent the remaining land from the state at a fixed rate. Christiania was also permitted to maintain its system of communal land ownership and remain autonomous in certain areas from the Danish state. This 76m-krone real estate deal between the government and Christiania finally gives residents the right to stay on the property where they have been squatting under threat of eviction for forty years.

The agreement involves the development of a fund to allow residents to buy most of the squatted land. Under the deal with the government and in true keeping with the founding principles of Christiania against private ownership, Christiania’s residents will remain as tenants with the fund conducting the transaction with the government on their behalf. A first instalment of 46m krone is due on 15 April 2012, with the remaining money due in instalments over the next six years.

To raise the money for the fund, Christiania is selling shares, although these shares do not give purchasers any of the rights of traditional shareholders. According to the Christiania Folkeaktie website, the shares, affectionately known as people’s shares, “are to be seen as donations supporting the buyout of the Freetown and as such worth more than money”.

So after years of wrangling with the government and fighting against the police, finally Christiania has been given a way to legalise its Freetown, and can now live without the fear of eviction. And it looks like the property developers will have to move on.

Global commodities traders reap rewards

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

With global commodities prices booming in recent years on the back of soaring demand from emerging market economies such as Brazil, India and China, the relatively small band of companies involved in the physical trading of food, fuels and metals, has done very nicely, thank you. By some estimates these companies control more than half of the world’s freely traded commodities while the top five firms generated 60 percent-plus of the industry’s total revenues last year.

Companies operating in this sector have, for the most part, kept a relatively low profile – largely due to many of them being unlisted (Glencore International being a recent notable exception) or family run – and headquartered in tax havens.

For the most part, US and European regulators, looking to fix a broken economic system, have been pre-occupied with clamping down on perceived bigger villains (for now) such as the banks and hedge funds. In October, top US derivatives regulators decided to impose position limits in the oil and metals markets. While this will most immediately impact banks trading in futures it is not yet entirely clear how this will affect trading firms, given they usually receive exemptions to limits as they are deemed to be bona fide hedgers.

In the old days simply chartering transport to move commodities across the globe would have sufficed in most cases. Nowadays, there is a growing tendency for trading houses to own the whole chain – starting with the mines or agricultural land at one end through to the pipelines and ships transporting the products.
As these companies have quietly become power brokers so their profiles have risen – not least due to greater attention being given to why commodities prices have climbed, rather than the simple fact they have.

Many players have reportedly amassed speculative positions worth billions, or simply hoarded commodities in warehouses and tankers during periods of tight supply.

The $64,000 question is whether such hoarding causes tight supplies or is merely symptomatic of tight supplies. An ever increasing number of people want to find out.

Ian Taylor, VITOL GROUP
Ian Taylor, CEO and President of the private Swiss independent energy trading company Vitol, joined in 1985 from Shell, where he had held a number of positions in shipping, operations and trading.

Under Taylor’s stewardship, the company, which was founded in Rotterdam in 1966 – and whose trading portfolio nowadays principally includes crude oil, oil products, LNG, natural gas, coal, power, metals and carbon emissions – saw revenues in 2010 climb to $195bn on the back of five million-plus barrels of crude oil and products being traded daily. Of total revenues $74.8bn came from crude oil operations, $37.2bn from gasoline and naphtha.

In November 2007 the company pleaded guilty to grand larceny for offering kickbacks to Iraq under the U.N. Oil-For-Food programme. It subsequently ended up paying $17.5 million in fines, although sanctions were not applied to individual executives.More recently Vitol have apparently catapulted themselves into a potentially leading position in post-Qaddafi Libya after a one-off deal with the rebels to swap crude for gasoline and diesel rapidly evolved into a $1bn business.

Ivan Glasenberg, GLENCORE INTERNATIONAL
Glencore International, the multinational commodities trading company headquartered in Switzerland, and founded in 1974 by trader Marc Rich – later to be pardoned by Bill Clinton for tax evasion – may have met a lukewarm response when it floated on the London stock market last May. But made an instant $10bn for CEO, Ivan Glasenberg.

The South African-born Glasenberg, who, like many of his contemporaries in the industry, is usually publicity shy, started at Glencore in 1984, working in the company’s coal departments in South Africa and Australia, before managing Glencore International’s Hong Kong and Beijing offices. In 1991, he became Head of Glencore’s Coal Department and in 2002 CEO of Glencore International. He is also a non-executive director of mining company Xstrata and also holds a directorship with Minara Resources Ltd.

Glencore, the world’s largest commodities trading company, saw revenues of $145bn in 2010 and had global market shares of 60 and 50 percent respectively in the internationally tradable zinc and copper markets. It also has a significant presence in grain (nine percent) and oil (three percent).

Glencore hasn’t been immune to winds of change blowing through world stock markets, however. Indeed, in September – and with a near 16 percent stake in the company worth $7.8bn – Glasenburg reportedly bought an additional 2.25 million shares at an average price of 435p – well below the firm’s 530p flotation price.

Greg Page, CARGILL
Greg Page joined Cargill in 1974, taking on various worldwide roles for the company prior to becoming CEO in 2007. Page is also a director of Eaton Corporation. Minneapolis U.S-based Cargill, founded in 1865 and nowadays an international provider of food, agricultural and risk management products and services, saw global sales in 2010 of $108bn.

Domestically, it runs one of the largest operations in the U.S. for converting corn into biofuels, as well as food for people and animals. It is also the No. 1 U.S. salt marketer and a major buyer and seller of cocoa and sugar. At any one time, Cargill charters around 350 vessels across the world’s oceans.

Page has continued to pursue a strategy started in 2000 placing a renewed emphasis within the company on innovation and technology. The company evolved from trading soybeans, to processing them into meal and oil, to producing high-value natural vitamin E from a soybean by-product. And it moved from trading corn, to processing corn into ethanol and fructose, to creating a whole new family of renewable products – from plastics to fabric – made from corn.

Page, meanwhile, isn’t averse to controversy. Addressing the National Grain and Feed Association convention in San Diego last March, he laid the blame for rising agricultural commodity prices in recent years firmly at the door of governments, claiming that moves by Russia and others to ban grain exports were ‘ill-timed, ill planned and really a beggar-thy-neighbour policy’’.

David Koch, KOCH INDUSTRIES
Founded in 1940 by Fred Koch, Koch Industries, Inc., the Wichita Kansas, U.S.-based private energy conglomerate, is co-owned nowadays by his sons David and Charles Koch – each holding a 42 percent stake worth an estimated combined $50bn, according to Forbes Magazine.

With revenues estimated at $100bn (in 2009) virtually every U.S. household has some Koch product – from paper towels and lumber, to Stainmaster carpet and Lycra in sports clothes, to gasoline for cars.

David Koch, who serves as an Executive Vice President of Koch Industries, is also CEO of Koch Chemical Technology Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries. In addition, he also serves as an Executive Vice President of Koch Industries Inc.

David Koch companies are involved in core industries such as the manufacturing, refining and distribution of petroleum, chemicals, energy, fertilisers and pulp/paper products among other activities. Since 2003, Koch companies have invested more than $43bn in acquisitions and other capital expenditures.

The firm employs 50,000 people in the U.S. and another 20,000 in 59 other countries. A chemical engineer by vocation Koch is a well-known funder of conservative and libertarian causes, including some organisations within the American Tea Party movement.

The brothers meanwhile are reportedly close to launching a nationwide database that would connect the millions of Americans sharing their libertarian views.

Patricia Woertz, ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND CO
The Archer Daniels Midland Company, headquartered in Decatur Illinois, U.S., processes cereal grains and oilseed into products used in the food, beverage, nutraceutical, industrial and animal feed markets globally. Revenues in 2011 were $81bn.

Chairman and CEO, Patricia Woertz, who has been at the helm since 2006, hit the ground running, overseeing a significant increase in capital expenditure – much of the increase in the budget targeted for bioenergy (turning corn into alternative fuels) projects at the expense of food and infrastructure.

A graduate of Penn State University (1974 class) Woertz worked for Ernst & Young before moving to Ernst & Young client Gulf Oil. A rapid rise through the corporate ranks there led to a placement in Vancouver as President of Chevron International in 1995 and, eventually, Executive Vice President of the company’s global downstream operations.

In an interview with Fortune magazine Woertz said her defining moment career-wise was in the early 1980’s when corporate raider T. Boone Pickens launched a bid for Gulf.

While that deal evaporated into the ether Gulf eventually signed off on a $13bn merger with Chevron – Woertz being put in charge of divesting the new entity of a refinery, a pipeline company and 4,000 gasoline stations.

Torbjörn Törnqvist, GUNVOR INTERNATIONAL
Chairman, and Swedish citizen, Torbjörn Törnqvist, along with Russian-born Finnish citizen, Gennady Timchenko, founded the company in 1997. In 2003 operations commenced out of Geneva, where it now has its headquarters.

The company initially operated as a niche player, transporting Russian oil through Estonia. At one point it was handling one third of Russia’s seaborne oil exports.

Törnqvist – who began his career at BP, trading oil across the world for 20 years – and Timchenko – were a perfect fit, given their expertise in the Russian oil market as well as the transport logistics market.

If the company’s original strengths lay in the trade, transport and storage of oil, these have since been augmented by activities, including fuel oil and petrol blending in Amsterdam, Singapore and other locations.

Törnqvist is overseeing a substantial capital investment programme in oil terminals, port facilities – moving beyond “core” markets as it trades in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America. Revenue in 2010 was $65bn (2009: $53bn).

Richard Elman, NOBLE GROUP
Founded in 1986 by now non-Executive Chairman, Richard Elman, Hong Kong-based, Singapore-listed Noble acts as a global supply chain manager of agricultural and energy products, metals and minerals.

Elman first arrived in Asia (from England) during the mid 1960s and has more than 50 years of experience in the physical commodities trading industry. Prior to setting up Noble he worked for 10 years with US-based commodities trading firm Phibro (later to be sold to Occidental Petroleum) where he served as Regional Director of that company’s Asian operations, including two years as a board director.

Noble manages a diversified portfolio of essential raw materials, integrating the sourcing, marketing, processing, financing and transportation. However, in recent years greater emphasis has been placed on strategic assets such as ports, warehouses and mines.

The key objective is to build a diversified network of “asset-medium” supply pipelines – the argument being that in doing so the company can secure long-term supply of key commodity groups – owning, controlling and managing the physical assets needed to move high-quality raw materials reliably.

However, citing defaults by U.S. cotton farmers and a slump in carbon credits in Europe, the company in November 2011 reported a Q3 net loss of $17.5m (Q3 2010: $157.2m) prompting CEO Ricardo Leiman to resign. Elman will run the group, which had full year revenue in 2010 of $56.7bn, until a successor is named.

Marco Dunand, MERCURIA ENERGY GROUP
Geneva-based Mercuria Energy Group Ltd, which was set-up in 2004 under the then-named J&S Group, by Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi, operates primarily as an independent energy trading company, moving roughly 1.5 million barrels of crude and oil products daily.

It also has upstream and downstream assets ranging from oil reserves in Argentina, Canada and the U.S., to oil terminals in Europe and China, as well as substantial investment in the coal mining industry.

Dunand earned a degree in Economics and Management at the University of Geneva, before embarking on a 20-year career that saw him move through Procter & Gamble, Cargill, J.Aron (the commodities arm of Goldman Sachs) – as Managing Director – Phibro and then Sempra Energy, where he helped set up the company’s European and Asian oil trading operations, along with Daniel Jaeggi.

The company, which generated revenues in 2010 of $47bn, arranged a $1.25bn credit line in May 2011 to fund expansion through asset purchases in Europe and North America. Longer term, Dunand has hinted he may take the Glencore International route by going public. Critics have suggested that this will give him an opportunity to buy assets he would otherwise be unable to afford.

Alberto Weisser, BUNGE
While Bunge can trace its origins back to Amsterdam in 1818 the Bermuda-registered company is nowadays headquartered in White Plains, New York, U.S. A leading global soybean exporter, it is also involved in food processing, grain trading, and fertilisers.

Chairman and CEO, Alberto Weisser, joined the company in 1993 as CFO – prior to that spending 15 years with the BASF Group working in Brazil, Germany, the U.S. and Mexico. He was appointed Chairman and CEO in May 2001.

The company’s agribusiness division – an integrated business principally involved in the purchase, storage, transport, processing and sale of agricultural commodities and commodity products – comprised 72 percent of its overall business in 2009, recording $30.5bn sales out of a total of $41.9bn. These operations and assets are primarily located in North and South America, Europe and Asia. In 2010 revenue was $45.8bn.

Bunge achieved its ranking through expansion in soybeans, the main oilseed in its native market, and rapeseed, the major oilseed in the EU. Having expanded into Brazilian sugar last year, the company has also confirmed it is entering the palm oil sector – through a 35 percent stake taken in Indonesia’s Bumiraya Investindo – as its traditional oil markets deteriorate.

With the OECD forecasting global world palm oil production to rise by a third by 2020-21, twice as fast as the average for other vegetable oils – it could prove a timely move.