City Diary: Mutiny on the top decks of Centrica over bonus-gate

After impeccable" sources told these pages that the energy chief will exit Centrica by the end of the year, he updated with a broad smile: Chief executives can stay too long in their jobs.

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Nick Candy, one half of the uber-prime Candy & Candy property fraternity, may have announced a return to profit at his interior design business this week.

But a source tells Diary that the Candy brothers have a challenge on their hands in the 10m-plus market.

Another set of brothers, Christian and Alex Stocker, are building up their Sons & Co property developer thanks to 200m backing from HBRE, the real estate company run by entrepreneur James Caan, and his partners in the Gulf.

If Sons & Co does succeed in stealing oligarch market share from the Candys in Mayfair and surrounding postcodes, the success will be particularly sweet.

The Sons & Co branding was devised by one Alex de Blonay, who previously lent her branding skills to Candy & Candy.

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To Oxford for the Skoll World Forum, the social entrepreneurs answer to Davos, which opened in a hustle of energetic networking yesterday.

Hosted by Jeff Skoll, the billionaire ex-president of eBay, this years line-up includes talks from Malala Yousafzai, the schoolgirl who survived being shot by the Taliban; Mike Barry, the head of M&Ss ethical Plan A scheme; and, naturally, Sir Richard Branson.

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City Diary: Mutiny on the top decks of Centrica over bonus-gate