Pembroke: Top chaps go at Caz

End of an era at Cazenove, the blue-blood City firm. John Kemp-Welchand Anthony Forbes, who have led the firm for 13 years, will hand over to Mark Loveday in 1994. They'll be 58 and 56 respectively by the time they retire and reckon it is time for a change. One concern at the firm, which still has a partners' room and delights in its rickety old lift, could be that tenure at the top is getting shorter. The firm's founder was in charge for 50 years and senior partners since the war (WW1, of course) have averaged 20 years. Mr Loveday is nearly 50 so it looks as if he may stay less than half that.

Still, he has a good broking pedigree since George, his father, was stock exchange chairman. While not as good as being a second or third generation Caz man this is, it seems, respectable enough.

The lights are going out all over Europe - at least they are in Philips's offices. The deeply troubled Dutch electronics company is trying to make up for its tendency for ever-increasing losses by tough cost control. Its ultra-sophisticated office buildings in Croydon and Eindhoven are fitted with the latest in energy-saving devices - computer sensors that switch off the lights whenever daylight reaches a certain brightness.

Of course this drives its long- suffering employees, forever plunged into the dark at just the wrong moment, absolutely nuts. So the boffins have also issued staff with TV-style, hand-held controllers so they can switch the lights back on without having to leave their seats.

The hawk-eyed reader may have noticed that this column is no longer 'Column Eight' but has evolved into 'Pembroke'. Of course, the new name had absolutely no connection with Pembroke House, aesthetically challenged home of the Independent.

Not that the conundrum has kept Ladbrokes awake at night. They much fancy a three-year-old colt named Pembroke, which is running, at odds of 14-1, in this Saturday's 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket. So much so that they have offered to place a pounds 50 bet on our behalf. If the nag triumphs, Ladbrokes will donate the winnings to charity. If not, they'll hand over the pounds 50 anyway.