People: Drury in demand

Tony Drury, energetic former head of investment concern St Helen’s Capital (now part of Edward Vandyk’s acquisitive Astaire broking group), has emerged as chairman of entrepreneurial small company and PLUS-quoted investment concern Axiom Capital. David Sinclair, founder of Golders Green-based Axiom, invited Drury, whose previous top slots have included David Williamson Associates and Capital Strategy, to take the chair at the behest of the Financial Services Authority and PLUS itself.

Politically active and an annual host of a table at the Welsh Conservatives’ ‘Dragon Dinner’ at the Carlton Club, Drury hopes to work closely with Sinclair, who is well versed in some of the more arcane reaches of the smaller company scene. A current ploy is a PLUS introduction for Cyprus-domiciled Cretan Group, headed by Greek entrepreneur George Vlamakis and boasting ambitious tourism projects in Crete.

Axiom, which is sceptical about some of PLUS’s recent charging and regulatory changes, also has German deals in prospect and plans to help raise money for Chinese companies and float concerns on Wall Street via American Depositary Receipts, which escape the costly burden of the USA’s Sarbanes-Oxley governance and accounting obligations. Sinclair and Drury also hope to bring to PLUS-quoted a Hong Kong investment group that specialises in preparing companies in the People’s Republic for listing.