London

WORLD leaders have different ways of wooing CEOs and investors: Donald Trump tweets loudly and cuts taxes; Theresa May makes quiet promises to companies to help them ride out Brexit. Emmanuel Macron's method is grander: he invited 140 bosses for dinner at the palace of Versailles this week, an event that almost upstaged the elite's traditional gathering in Davos.

It's more than the action of an energetic new president keen to sell his reform agenda to the likes of Lloyd Blankfein or Sundar Pichai. Talk to bankers on the ground, and there's a confidence that Paris will keep financiers busy this year - and that bullishness looks justified.