An Olympian Comes To Town
March 29, 2023
Olympian turned celebrity coach, Greg Whyte, was in Ipswich recently. As this is so local to us, we felt that we had to go and
March 29, 2023
A Big Delivery
March 29, 2023
There are always classic vehicles coming into the Bridge Classic Cars workshop. However, every now and again, multiple vehicles all show up at the same
Risky Business With Rogue Trader Nick Leeson
March 29, 2023
Some of the team here at Bridge Classic Cars recently had the opportunity to hear the story of Rogue Trader, Nick Leeson from the man
An Olympian Comes To Town
March 29, 2023
Olympian turned celebrity coach, Greg Whyte, was in Ipswich recently. As this is so local to us, we felt that we had to go and listen to him speak at the Ipswich Sporting Lunch Club, hosted at local restaurant Venue 16.
Greg spoke to a large audience of local business leaders and professionals about raising funds for SportsAid.
According to their research, SportsAid has found that, before becoming a household name, talented athletes will spend 10,000 hours and thousands of pounds to make it to elite level. Without funding and support from SportsAid, this simply would not be a feasible option for many promising sports stars of the future.
SportsAid Suffolk has already raised and distributed more than £300,000 to support young people in the county.
The Ipswich Sporting Lunch Club was founded in January 2015 and is sponsored by six businesses based in Suffolk – Pound Gates Chartered Insurance Brokers, Ensors Chartered Accountants, Ellisons Solicitors, StrategiQ, Handelsbanken, and Beckett Financial Services.
A Big Delivery
March 29, 2023
There are always classic vehicles coming into the Bridge Classic Cars workshop. However, every now and again, multiple vehicles all show up at the same time.
After a successful day at auction recently, we received a delivery of several vehicles that we were very excited to welcome into the workshop. In the back of the car transporter was our 1958 Austin Healey Sprite, our 1969 Morgan 4/4 1600, and our 1998 Lotus Elise S1.
We are looking forward to sharing more information on these beautiful classic cars very soon!
Risky Business With Rogue Trader Nick Leeson
March 29, 2023
Some of the team here at Bridge Classic Cars recently had the opportunity to hear the story of Rogue Trader, Nick Leeson from the man himself.
For those who don’t know, Nick Leeson is a former trader who ended up in prison after he single-handedly bankrupted Barings Bank in 1995. Although he was ultimately convicted of fraud, Nick actually started his trading career as something of a future star. After making massive profits for Barings, Nick was moved to Singapore where he made his first unauthorised trades.
Nick’s role should have been cash-neutral for his employer, meaning that any profits and losses belonged to the client’s portfolios that he was managing. Barings Bank would get a commission for any successes but they wouldn’t lose any money in the trades. However, what was actually happening is that Nick was using the bank’s money to try and recoup trading losses.
Nick used the extremely risky strategy of betting double the amount of money lost to try and get the losses back while making a profit too. This ended up with Barings Bank losing a total of £827 million in 1995. This huge amount of money was double the bank’s trading capital and proved to be the beginning of the end for the 230-year-old bank.
While in prison, Nick wrote a book called Rogue Trader which subsequently was adapted into a film starring Ewan McGregor and Anna Friel in 1999.
Obviously, the actions of Nick Leeson impacted a huge number of people and there is still a strong element of controversy and emotion that surrounds him. That being said, hearing his story and his explanation of what was going on at the time was certainly very interesting and something that the team will remember.
