Day in the Life: Henrietta Royle, chief executive of BOOST
It will also invest in housing and community projects. Investors in the bond will get their money back (minus interest) after five years. BOOST has been recognised by Buckingham Palace as the City Bond for the Queen's Golden Jubilee.
0802 Arrive in the office. Will get round to firing off a letter of complaint to London Underground some day. Fortunately Close Brothers, our temporary, pro bono landlords, have given us offices right across from Cannon Street station so I dive straight into emails and correspondence.
Three more presentations confirmed over the next two weeks, two firm agreements to invest, four offers to host receptions and one 'Sorry, no,' letter. Spent ages on that one. Never mind.
0900 First meeting of the day. Russ Lawrence, a journalist. This job may not have quite the pressure that accompanied some of the big M&A or strategic projects of my investment banking or British Invisibles days, but it has a very different challenge - the need to keep so many plates spinning as interest in the BOOST Bond continues to build and the pledges of money come through.
I'm also swathed in confidentiality agreements, which doesn't make for great PR.....
Russ promises to go away from our chat to write a substantial piece for the Newham Recorder. He also casts his eye over my piece for the in-house magazine of the Transport and General Workers Union, to ensure it's pitched correctly for its union audience. Writing for this sort of reader is a very different challenge to producing articles aimed at an acronym-friendly, financial services readership.
1022 Arrive in Mayfair to give a presentation to a leading property consultancy company. All the senior management turn up. They only have half an hour - I take that back about no pressure! But they love the fact that their investment would attract matching funding from EU and government sources.
They know our development partner, Places For People, is the UK's largest housing association and want to work with us to find suitable sites for the new business incubator units and community housing we will build in the target East End boroughs. They want to help recruit the big companies in the commercial property sector. Can't ask for much more than that.
1135 The property presentation is two minutes walk from my brother's offices at a major US financial services group, so I decide to drop in on him. We pop round the corner to Starbucks. I press him on whether his firm might invest.
He tells me that the chances are slim, on the grounds that all the cash is in the individual businesses. Then, who should walk past the window but an old friend and chairman of one of those businesses.
1210 Time is getting tight but I bang on the window and he pops round. In four minutes he gets a large skinny latte and an updated business pitch. I had briefed him on the BOOST Bond a couple of weeks before and he was very supportive, but felt that ideally I should try to get money at Group level first.
Now he responds that he will recommend to his board that his company invest 1 million at the next board meeting. Since the money is guaranteed to be returned in five years, he feels it should be an easy call.
1230 Lunch at the House of Lords. Tomorrow's People, our partner for the employability element of our project, has gathered a large number of their corporate and institutional supporters, including Diageo, Barclays and BT, to brief them on success to date and encourage them to invest.
We chose them because they have an 85% success rate nationally of getting the long-term unemployed into work and still having them there a year later. Following my speech, a gratifying number come up to find out more and offer support.
Also, to my delight, Tony Colman MP comes up to find out what the situation is vis-a-vis tax breaks. I explain that I have had meetings with ministers, officials and the Inland Revenue to try to get tax relief for the interest foregone by investing in the BOOST Bond, but there appears to be a technical problem.
He sits on the Finance Bill committee and offers to help me try and unblock the difficulties. Because of the leverage created by the matching funding, the project is still extremely attractive, but tax relief will provide some extremely useful icing.
1545 Contrary to popular belief, the City has a long tradition of supporting charities and agencies set up to help the disadvantaged in the East End. My last meeting goes well with a major investment management company, which is heavily tied into Community Links, a well-regarded Newham based agency, specialising in employment preparation and training.
They have a sizeable, heavyweight fan club in the City. Without their support, we cannot get investment from their major funders.
Fortunately, it makes lots of sense for them to work with us, which will mean funding from the BOOST Bond going their way. The result is we have won their unconditional, proactive support. This does not guarantee their backers' investment, but it makes it likely from at least some of them. Most of these companies could afford 1m plus.
1710 Finally, back to the office to answer emails and write letters. Two more invitations to present, and a really touching note from an East End shopkeeper who can only afford the minimum investment (100) but wishes us luck.
My assistant Antonia brings me a coffee and tells me that the Northern Line is running late from Bank. The Bond closes in August. London Underground will get their letter of complaint then. I promise.
