Punters pray to St Paddy

A decent start to the Cheltenham Festival for the bookmakers with the defeat of odds-on favourite Dunguib in the first (Paddy Power had a liability of £4m alone on the supposed "banker of the week").

Still, elsewhere I hear that William Hill has been busy schmoozing investors to float the idea of another bond issue later this year - in order to refinance its debt (again) and extend maturities.

And who was conducting this City charm offensive? Er, none other than departing finance chief Simon Lane. Should an outgoing CFO really be allowed to present to the City, I hear you ask? The answer, in Cheltenham week, seems to be "yes".

A turn up for the books

I see William Hill FD, Simon Lane, has left the bookmaker just a few weeks after its bond issue.
That's a nice touch. Presumably the decision to part company must have been made in the past few days, otherwise I'm sure the company would have let investors know about the switch when making representations during the fundraising.

Update 24/11/09, 15:10: Simon Lane attended the bond presentations yet failed to mention his job move. Says one investor: "They should really have delayed the process until they had a new finance director. He didn't answer many questions and didn't give out his [business] card." Shoddy.