The City: 3 things you need to know this week

Could a golf course upend the longheld trade relations between Britain and China? Quite possibly, according to Songhua Ni, the London-based head of Chinese leisure group Reignwood. That conglomerate bought Wentworth, the famous surrey-based golf course, in 2014. And members of the old guard trade in rumours of “social cleansing” and the rolling out of red carpets to the “Chinese elite”. All this talk made the company’s CEO very nervous indeed: “It’s all a bit off track,” he said, in an interview early in the week.

The stakes are certainly high enough to cause some serious disruption. Reignwood wants to saddle existing Wentworth members with a one-off levy of £100,000, before whittling down its membership from 4,000 to an oddly specific 888. With the dissident members consisting largely of City financiers and high-flying businessmen, it’s thought that the rising discontent could spill over into wider Anglo-Chinese investments. And if that happens, it could be a real bunker shot for the international community at large.

Schroders, the Grand old Dame of asset management, came under fire this week after it broke what the City has long held as the golden rule of management: that a chief executive should never become chairman of the same company. The man in question here is Michael Dobson, the £8million-a-year CEO of that storied firm. And while it’s clear that Dobson has had a hell of a run at the helm – the fund has transformed its regular losing record 15 years ago into a $600m annual return today – fears abound that the head honcho could now wield “too much power”.

Writing in the Times, Alistair Osbourne lamented the move as both “chummy and hypocritical”. The enduring question is this: How can the firm – with a leveraged fund that commands some £300 billion of other people’s money – ever take the critical high ground again?

Just who is this mystery investor? That was the question that echoed around Burberry’s London office last week, as it emerged that an unknown figure had secured a 5% stake in the fashion house. Could this be the start of a guerilla takeover bid, asked analysts across the City? Well, the timing certainly seems about right. Shares in the British luxury group have bellyflopped of late in response to weak demand from China, and the secretive bidder – whoever he or she may be – might decide to grab the premium brand at an outlet price. As far as CEO Christopher Bailey is concerned, writes Jonathan Guthrie in the FT, the tanks are on the lawn.