Great party at London House. Loads of athletes and all the stars. Had lots of fun with Jimmy Page, Leona Lewis and David Beckham. Also met Jackie Chang on top form.Delighted with London House and thrilled that the LDA put it together so well whille spending around 30% less than Ken Livingstone had planned.
They've also put it to extremely good commerical use. Over the last few days I've been dropping in on various brunches, lunches and dinners. Elegant people have held orderly meetings in quiet rooms away from the party goers and the press.
And today I learn that more than a hundred Chinese companies have held talks about doing business in London. Around 30 have expressed a serious interest in moving ahead.
This morning - I struck a deal with one of them. Geong makes software for online banking and trading - among other things. They recently listed on AIM and I was thrilled to hear them say how much better their experience was of our Alternative Investment Market than the other exchanges they'd looked at around the world.
Henry Tse told me in perfect English that opening an office in London is the logical next step and he's just signed a letter of intent comitting to that as he seeks to grow his business in Europe.
A London taxi is now set to drive around 12 Chinese cities seeking other opportunities. I dread to think what the fare would be, but on the basis of the last few weeks, I'm confident the customer - in this case London - will be getting a bargain.
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