At a dinner at the Guildhall in mid-November, hedge fund titan Philippe Jabre mingled in the same banquet hall as HSBC’s head of equities Patrick George, and Nagi Hamiyeh, head of industrials at Temasek. Deutsche Bank natural resources dealmaker Khaled Fathallah chatted to Morgan Stanley peer Michel Antakly and the global head of natural resources investment banking at Lazard, Spiro Youakim.

And the guest speaker that night was the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, Xavier Rolet.