Why is Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (LON:RBS) still losing money, asks BBC’s business editor, Simon Jack.
Then, like any good journalist, he provides an answer (though not necessarily the answer).
“If there has been a scandal going, RBS has been involved,” Jack suggests.
“Fines for PPI, Libor rigging, foreign exchange fixing, squeezing small businesses for profit, and selling risky mortgages have laid waste to any earnings the core UK bank has been making,” he added.
RBS boss Ross McEwan reckons the UK government should have done what the authorities in the US did, and that is recapitalise the banks more extensively in 2009.
As it is, the coalition government “only” pumped in £45bn into the company, giving it an 81% stake. One can understand why politically the government felt it could not put more into the struggling bank, especially as Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was keen on sporting the hair-shirt at the time.
“We’re all in it together,” was the catch-phrase of the Notting Hill set in those days.
McEwan, and the BBC’s Simon Jack both reckon it would have been better to have bitten the bullet back in 2009 and put in some serious money.
Nick McKittrick, chief executive officer of property listings web site Rightmove PLC (LON:RMV) has announced his decision to retire from the board in May.
He’s undeniably had a successful run, and it always a good idea to quit while on a high, as perhaps Claudio Ranieri would testify.
It’s the first day on Aim for Saffron Energy plc (LON:SRON). Disappointingly, the company has not found a way of generating energy from crushed crocus (whence comes saffron); more prosaically, it is an onshore natural gas producer with interests in northern Italy.
The shares are trading at 7.375p, having floated at 5p a pop.
"Italy is a very good market to produce and commercialise gas. The gas from our fields is very pure. It is 99% methane, so the processing plant can be very small. The gas basically goes straight into the Italian national grid from the well,” said Michael Masterman, chief executive of Saffron.
If his name sounds familiar, that’s because he is also chairman of W Resources, a company that is developing a tungsten mine in Spain.
Coincidentally, just as I typed that he walked through the front door of the Proactive Investors office for an interview, so instead of speculating whether he only gets involved in companies that offer the chance to enjoy Mediterranean sunshine, I can ask him in person.