A legendary lunch with Charles Peel

Today Peel Hunt unveiled plans to float on the stock market with a value of perhaps £300 million.

This is interesting for several reasons, the first of which is that it sees the firm taking its own recommended medicine.

It’s always amused me how many stockbroking firms shun the stock market themselves, plainly seeing it as a load of trouble they could do without, as they pocket fees for advising clients to do what they themselves would not.

You sense that Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan would probably like to take themselves private at this point, were that not an act of hypocrisy extraordinary even by Wall Street standards.

One other point of interest at Peel Hunt is eponymous co-founder Charlie Peel, a broker from the old school City, who amused and charmed in equal measures.

Is he still alive, I asked. They had to check, but came back with the happy news that he is still with us.

It was a fair question, since 20 years ago we had a lunch which lasted about three days and nearly killed me, never mind him.

Today’s news is about Peel Hunt moving forward, and best of luck to them.

But I think companies and their flaks don’t make enough of their own backstory, especially when that story includes people as funny as Charlie Peel.

The tale of how Peel Hunt got to where it is would be a good read. The place for it is not in a flotation document, but in a newspaper.

I hope someone does a proper job on it tomorrow.