Spear’s 500 Live 2024: the highlights

The premier live event for private client professionals lived up to its billing, with notable contributions from Neil Woodford and Nick Candy

By Spear's

More than 500 leading figures from the world of private wealth convened at the Savoy last week for Spear’s 500 Live, the marquee annual conference that has become recognised as the premier live event for private client professionals.

The event, which was attended by senior figures from firms such as Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Mishcon de Reya and Harbottle & Lewis, was the setting for Neil Woodford’s first major interview since 2021. The former star fund manager criticised what he saw as the excessively negative picture of the UK economy painted by the press and certain commentators.

‘We’re very downbeat about our economy, we’re very downbeat about politics, we’re very downbeat about the state of the nation,’ said Woodford. ‘And I think many of those narratives are just fundamentally wrong.’

Neil Woodford at Spear's 500 Live — Neil Woodford told attendees of Spear’s 500 Live that UK equities were poised for a bull run

The comments were made in a wide-ranging interview with Spear’s editor-in-chief Edwin Smith in which Woodford also addressed the fallout from the closure of his business, Woodford Investment Management, following liquidity problems that led to the collapse of one of its funds.

Attendees of the conference also heard that the branded residence craze sweeping the property market in London, Dubai and other super-prime hubs is not without risk for buyers. ‘What I don’t like is branded residences where they say “it’s a Four Seasons residences or St. Regis residences”, and there’s no hotel or anything nearby,’ said Nick Candy, co-founder of Candy Capital.

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‘That’s not a branded residence. That’s like buying a fake handbag. That’s like [saying] “I can’t afford the Louis Vuitton one in the shop, but I can get the one on the street from the seller.” That’s just absolute rubbish. It’s fraud, it’s a joke, and that’s not what branded residences are about.’

Candy is recognised as a pioneer of branded residences in London, having been responsible for One Hyde Park. The development, which is serviced by the nearby Mandarin Oriental hotel, was said to have set a record for the most expensive residential property in Britain in August 2010 when a penthouse in the development was reportedly sold for £140 million.

Candy’s remarks at Spear’s 500 Live, which were picked up by the Guardian newspaper, were just one element of a lively session on the super-prime property market for which he was joined by George Azar, the chairman and CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty in the UK, Dubai and Saudi Arabia, as well as ‘Mayfair Guru’, Peter Wetherell.

Also on the day’s agenda:

Videos of all sessions can be viewed via the links above, or on Spear’s Magazine’s YouTube channel.

Spear’s 500 Live 2024 was presented in association with our partners, Multrees, Henley & Partners, Sotheby’s International Realty, Stewardship, CAF, The Kusnacht Practice, Invest Barbados, Institut auf dem Rosenberg and Justerini & Brooks.