WHEN it comes to organising a bash, nobody can do it better than a hedge-fund manager. Few will forget the opulence of the Ark dinner, where £18m was raised for charity, or the Hedgestock industry conference that was more of a hippy extravaganza.

Those were public events. Here’s a sneak preview of how it’s done in private.

This weekend industry godfather Stanley Fink, chief executive of Man Group, the world’s biggest quoted hedge-fund manager, is celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary. For the best buddies of the couple, the party started two weeks ago with a “stag night” for Fink and a “hen night” for his wife, Barbara. Everyone else — a further 200 friends — was asked to dinner and dancing in Spain.

Each guest received a suede mock-up passport that opened up to reveal pictures of the couple throughout the years, an itinerary of the three-day bash and travel documents. Included in the pack were tickets on Fink Air — two specially chartered aircraft — and additional details: for example, that bags would be checked; only Prada, Gucci and Louis Vuitton allowed.

The destination was the Rhonda mountains behind Marbella’s La Zagaleta, one of the world’s most exclusive golf clubs. Here, near the 18th hole, on land that originally belonged to Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer, Fink has just finished building a villa, the stage for his grand celebration.

Although Fink, right, is worth £110m, according to The Sunday Times Rich List, he is surprisingly modest compared with others in his sector. At first the party was planned to be a low-key affair but, after Fink recovered from a brain tumour, the scale of the celebration soared.

Congratulations to you both.

Retailer makes fat living

IT’S not just dress sizes that are increasing at N Brown, the retailer for those with “big bones”. Pay packages are ballooning, too.

Alan White, chief executive of the Manchester company whose brands include JD Williams, Simply Be, Ambrose Wilson, Fashion World and Premier Man, was awarded more than £1.3m in pay and shares last year. This makes him the fourth-best paid retailer in the FTSE 250.

Admittedly, White has managed to grow the company even faster than the nation’s expanding waistband. He has turned it round from making a loss in May 2003, when the shares languished at 80p, to a far larger company whose shares are worth more than 200p.

A spokeswoman for N Brown pointed out that White’s pay was less after tax. Now, now, the first step to success is integrity.

Ascot and World Cup becalm the markets

THERE’S a reason markets were so quiet last week: the City was out, either at Ascot or in Germany.

Ascot’s new stand drew bigger crowds than usual to the royal meeting. Among the racegoers, Andrew Regan, the colourful entrepreneur, was testing his vast new box. Also there were David Mayhew of Cazenove, Michael Spencer of Icap and David Roper, chief executive of Melrose, who was sporting a St George’s cross waistcoat. There was less cheer in the Ladbrokes executive box because of the noise from next door — the BBC’s box, which held the cast of Holby City.

Despite the opulence, the cost was nothing compared with the World Cup trips, where tickets, and every private plane, were swapping hands for thousands.

Meanwhile, good news for Michael Owen, right, after Northern Rock pulled the stricken striker’s ad campaign. Asda decided to keep theirs anyway.

Next up, Wimbledon.

• I’M sure it’s not true that Paul Myners is bitterly envious of Sir Philip Green’s knighthood, but it would be understandable. Not only has he been an upstanding member of the City for decades, put in years as a New Labour luvvie and written the influential Myners Report, he also fended off Green’s audacious bid for Marks & Spencer and saved the store for the nation. Yet his adversary is knighted instead.

  There’s no such shortage of knights at Easyjet, where Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou is now the third one on the board, along with Sir Colin Chandler and Sir David Michels. Perhaps their jets should stop taking off and simply arise.
  

• A READER calls with a strange tale. He is a big spread-better and has an account at Cantor Index, the retail arm of Cantor Fitzgerald.

  He had been considered a good customer — until recently. “I don’t know what’s going on, but Cantor don’t seem to want my business any more,” he said.

  Our man would have taken it personally, but then his friends reported looming changes to their margin rates and higher funding charges. Very odd.

  The retail arm has had a tricky few months. In the new year, Lewis Findlay, managing director of Cantor, suddenly left its America Square HQ in the City, amid rumours of a bust-up over the way the division was being run.

  Since then parts of the business have been noticeably shrinking. For instance, Cantor Sport has been scaled back, closing its online spread-betting and taking bets only over the phone. Now the word is that the division is under review and could face further cuts or even complete closure. Watch this space.

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