The Forum can be admirably scabrous at times - Jupiter chief executive Edward Bonham-Carter found that out after a very uncomfortable 30 minutes of probing questions from City grandee Paul Myners.
The fund management guru - who has spent two years as a business journalist with the Daily Telegraph - showed no mercy for the hapless Bonham-Carter who was grilled on a range of issues; from Jupiter's MBO with TA last year, to his view on the markets.
Myners chastised Bonham-Carter on the "narrowness of Jupiter's structure", which predominantly offers only long-only equities to retail clients, and its "static model" which currently makes it difficult for Bonham-Carter's successor to earn as much as he does.
Jupiter has never revealed how much TA acquired through the MBO - but Myners dropped the 40 percent very casually into another of his rapier sharp questions.
He even cajoled the usually self-assured Bonham-Carter to admit that he would fire himself from the running of his fund by next year if a spell of poor performance continued.
Bonham-Carter later wryly admitted he had been ambushed, and that Myners had not given him any inkling of what lay in store for him. It will be a toss up whether Bonham-Carter would rather fire himself right now, or allow himself to be interviewed by Myners again.
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