Business Diary: Perloff ramblings bemuse City

Andrew Perloff, the eccentric chairman of Panther Securities, is known for his forthright opinions, which included predicting the financial meltdown. In the property group's full-year results yesterday, he vented fully in a section appropriately titled "Chairman's Ramblings". Mr Perloff aired his opinion on subjects from BP and bankers, to an anecdote about George Best, only failing to reveal how they related to his company.

Hoover pulls ads over soap axe

ABC's decision to axe two soap operas in the US has backfired somewhat after the move prompted Hoover to pull all advertising from the Disney-owned network. Marketing executive Brian Kirkendall said on the company's official Facebook page: "My wife and mother are both passionate viewers of All My Children and One Life to Live." He said the company was so disappointed that "we will discontinue our advertising with ABC this Friday. We're making every attempt to pull our spots from these programmes sooner."

'Psycho' venture

In the current climate of hatred against investment bankers, what better for a new club than to be inspired by the novel that brutally satirised the bankers of the 1980s? Fraser Caruthers and Nick Andreen formerly with Boujis have turned to American Psycho for their new London venture, Dorsia, the name of the restaurant where anti-hero Patrick Bateman fails to secure a booking. Diary wonders – whether postmodern or not – whether the club will strive for realism and fill it with a similar string of shallow, vapid airheads as the book? In South Ken? Surely not.

US media knives out for Trump

The US is still no clearer whether Donald Trump, and his extraordinary hair, will make a bid for the presidency next year. What will be increasingly clear to him is that the move from reality television boss to the boss of the entire country will not be a smooth one, especially as the media have drawn their knives. After a scathing report from NBC News, The Atlantic found a banker who worked on a $640m property deal with Trump that went wrong and he was not too complimentary. "It's pretty well-known in financial circles that this guy is a deadbeat," the source said.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk