AN enamelled turban ornament from India fetched £350,000 in an auction held by Sotheby’s auction house in London on Wednesday (1).
The 19th-century gem-set turban ornament, or a sarpech, belonged to the Sikh Khalsa (or the army of the Sikh Empire) commander Hari Singh Nalwa.
Two 17th century Mughal miniature paintings from India were also auctioned by Sotheby’s auction house.
Malik Karim
A prolific City dealmaker whose family fled Uganda during Idi Amin's regime has taken home more than £8 m this year after his investment bank capitalised on a boom in financial services takeovers.
Malik Karim, 64, received £8.6 m from the profit pool at Fenchurch Advisory Partners, the London-based firm he founded in 2003.
The company's accounts show revenues climbed to £74.3 m in the 12 months to March, up from £61.5 m the previous year.
The former Conservative Party treasurer has established himself as a leading Square Mile adviser through Fenchurch's specialisation in financial services sector transactions.
The firm's 21 partners shared a total profit pool of £24.4 m, with Karim receiving the largest portion adding to the £12 m profit share he earned in 2024.
Fenchurch advises clients ranging from banks and insurers to wealth managers and private equity firms. Recent major deals include advising Hargreaves Lansdown, Britain's biggest DIY investment platform, on its £5.4 bn sale to a private equity consortium, and the Co-operative Bank on its £780 m takeover by Coventry Building Society.
The firm also worked on Athora's £5.7 bn deal for Pension Insurance Corporation in July and the £1.3 bn sale of insurer Esure to Ageas in April.
Karim attributed the success to the firm's specialised approach. "We're lucky to have a business model which is very specialised in a very busy sector," he told The Times, noting that financial services deals are "complicated transactions" involving a "very watchful" regulator, creating "a big need for multidisciplinary advice, not just your standard M&A financial advice."
Born in Uganda where his father ran a bus station café, Karim's family fled to Britain in 1972 when Amin ordered the expulsion of Uganda's south Asian population.
After studying at Manchester University, he trained as an accountant before moving into finance at investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, which Credit Suisse acquired in 2000.
Following his departure from the Swiss group, Karim established Fenchurch in 2003.
French bank Natixis bought a stake in 2018, and the firm expanded with a New York office in 2022, and Paris base this year, now employing over 80 bankers.
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