PHIL BRUCE, who quit the London Stock Exchange almost a year ago, has quietly resurfaced at Liffe, the London futures market owned by Euronext, as “senior strategy adviser in charge of derivatives”. He had already spent 15 years of his career at Liffe and is, indeed, a derivatives expert.

Bruce’s reason for leaving the LSE was never clear, but I heard he fell out with other executives over the way forward, because he favoured links with other markets. Such as Deutsche Börse and, er, Euronext, his new employer and the most likely owner, by the end of the year, of the LSE. Truly, what goes around, comes around.

SIR PETER BURT, the chairman of ITV, has popped up as chairman of a new AIM private equity fund seeking unspecified acquisition opportunities. One of which, we must assume, will not be ITV, the subject of persistent rumours that it is being targeted by private equity funds.

Numbers game

WHEN Jeff Mecuri, a sterling swaps broker at Icap, bought himself a new Ferrari, he was pretty rude about jumped-up City oiks with personalised numberplates. But when Mecuri saw the perfect one advertised on Bloomberg, he was tempted. JEF456M? For a Ferrari 456? No one would remember his earlier remarks, surely? Our man made an offer and was accepted. He went along to the Pavilion on Finsbury Circus yesterday lunchtime to take delivery of his new toy — to be met by about eight friends from the market, led by Grant Nichols at Royal Bank of Scotland. And no numberplate.

I ring up Mecuri and ask if, for the right price, he would still be interested in the plate. “No, no, it was a joke.”

TONY GATEHOUSE, chairman of Medsea, relocated to Spain, where the company is based. As a Yorkshireman, he missed the cricket, but Gatehouse discovered that there is, improbably, an organisation, the Asociacion Española de Cricket, based in Murcia, which promotes Spain as a force within European cricket. He convinced his fellow directors to make a charitable donation. As a result, Spain is sending a team to the European Championships this August, held in that other well-known centre of cricketing excellence, Belgium.

Winning hand

THAT PartyGaming flotation looks odder and odder. Tucked away in the prospectus is the news that as it is incorporated in Gibraltar, “a takeover offer for the Company will not be regulated by the UK takeover authorities”. Is there another FTSE 100 company not protected by the Takeover Code? And does anyone know anything about Gibraltar takeover law? It seems to me that only one organisation emerges with any credit from all this. Investec Securities quit as adviser in May because of concerns over the legality of online poker and the past business activities of one of the founders. This stand is now widely admired in the City. I wonder how much work Investec has picked up as a consequence?

SPEAKING of ITV again, the man prevented from becoming its chairman, Michael Green, popped up again with a complicated merger yesterday. Employees were assured that London Digital would not suffer any job cuts as a result. On page 2 of the Stock Exchange announcement, the company has 30 employees. By the time you get to page 6, the total has fallen to 29. That’s one gone already, then.

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