A STRANGE coincidence in the United Nations investigation into the rather irregular way Compass Group won contracts to feed UN peacekeepers. It turns out that Nane Annan, the wife of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, is a member of Sweden’s Wallenberg dynasty, which in April, through its EQT Partners vehicle (stay with me on this one), acquired part of Compass’s Select Service Partner catering business.

Mrs Annan, a Swedish lawyer, is the niece of Raoul Wallenberg, the diplomat who saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust.

It is not known whether she has any financial interest in EQT, although if it emerges that she does then the issue will be whether her husband is in breach of the UN’s own disclosure requirements.

According to Inner City Press, a New York-based organisation best known for its investigations into predatory lending, Mr Annan’s spokesperson has refused to discuss the subject, insisting that his wife’s finances are “a confidential personal matter”.

DAVID CARRUTHERS, the former BetOnSports chief executive, may be facing an uncertain future, but at least he is doing so from rather more salubrious surroundings than of late. After a month spent in various American prison cells, he is now residing at one of St Louis’s more comfortable hotels, Clayton on the Park. Here he can take his mind off things by visiting the bar, where guests “enjoy jazz, R&B, insturmental [sic] and comedy while taking in some libations” .

No-brainer

DAVID BRUCE, the founder of the Firkin pub chain, has long since renounced the irritating habit of renaming every pub he buys under a single brand. Where once he would upset the locals by changing a pub's name from, say, The Red Lion to The Ferret & Firkin, he now sticks with the existing name.

But the recent purchase of a hostelry near Kew Gardens presented him with the opposite problem. Under its previous owner, Mitchells & Butlers, it was branded as a Browns restaurant, so he had to find a new nomenclature. Showing due deference to the outlet’s location, Bruce decided to call it The Botanist on the Green, although it has already acquired an unfortunate nickname.

“A local misheard the name and now everyone knows it as The Lobotomist,” he laughs.

WITH a nasty-looking housing downturn fuelling worries over America’s economic prospects, and carping from Wall Street over the Federal Reserve’s grip on policy, it may seem a bit premature to declare a Ben Bernanke Day. Still, that hasn't stopped the newish Fed Chairman’s home town of Dillon, South Carolina, doing just that this Friday. How long before Wolverhampton declares Mervyn King Day, I wonder?

Questionable call

AFTER studiously avoiding the mergers and acquisition bandwagon engulfing the telecoms sector, BT spent the weekend putting the finishing touches to an IPO of its Indian joint venture, Tech Mahindra. The shares, which were offered by BT and its partner, Mahindra & Mahindra, at 365 rupees, jumped to a 52 per cent premium yesterday, suggesting that the telecoms group left rather a lot of money on the table. Maybe its M&A skills are a bit rusty.

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive