Bank Loans

So Lloyds TSB are considering paying bonuses.

At least they are being consistent with other banks, namely paying for failure. They only bought HBOS less than six months ago which is now reporting monumental losses. They have said that the directors will not get bonuses, but how about senior management, not at board level, who were part of the driving force in this banking disaster. These guys never get a mention as they keep a low profile whilst picking up the money. Let’s see which grades of staff get the bonuses and not be told as a defence, that a large proportion of their staff only get £17,000 per annum.

source: BBC news

Chelsea Football Club

Chelsea Football Club have published their financial results which demonstrate consistency over the last few years (yet more losses) following a change in ownership. Their losses were £64m which, we are advised, are after exceptional items. These exceptional items which are included in staff salaries amount to £23.1m and relate to compensation payments to two first team managers and five coaching staff. As they don’t include the most recent manager departure are they still considered exceptional? Interestingly they state that any squad restructuring in the summer is to be funded predominantly by sales. Interesting as they have an ageing squad, though they don’t mention which summer!!!!

Football Finances

For eight years they reigned supreme until they were toppled four years ago by one of their rivals and have failed in the last four years to wrestle back top spot from them. Who am I talking about and what am I talking about? A clue; for the first five years of the European Cup, since renamed the European Champions League, one of these two won it for the first five years. Now there’s a similarity?

The answer, Real Madrid have retained top spot for the fourth year running, Manchester United coming second again, as the richest football club as disclosed in the “league table” recently published.

The clue above refers to Real Madrid winning the competition for the first five years. Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool are fifth, sixth and seventh respectively. Possibly if these last three had used Morley and Scott’s bookkeeping and management accounts services their reporting systems would have been far more efficient to enable them to be higher up the table!

source: BBC news

Electricity charges

So as we head towards spring with the days getting lighter and the heating lower E.on announces it is lowering its electricity charges by 9%, though its gas prices are to remain the same.

Interestingly, British Gas is cutting its gas charges by 10% from 19 February. A fascinating statistic to come from this is that apparently E.on has 5.5 million customers and says that their cuts will benefit 4.1 million households. What if anything does this say about the population profile?

source: BBC news

Muzak Holdings

What goes up must come down. Muzak Holdings the US company known for providing background music in lifts has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Although it missed a $105m payment to creditors, the chief executive said it was a solid business with an outstanding customer base. He went on to say that they are burdened with substantial debt obligations established over a decade ago. What have they been doing in the last ten years; did they just notice these debts creep up on them? Documents filed with a US bankruptcy court showed that the company had liabilities in the range of $100m to $500m. It’s probably insignificant if you are a UK bank.

source: BBC news

Gordon Brown

Apparently Gordon Brown has said he expects to make a profit from the shares purchased by the taxpayer in order to save the struggling banks.

So we lose a fortune, the government use taxpayer’s money to bail out the banks and he pockets a profit. Seems like his next job, which could (should?) come very soon, is in banking as he is already into their ethos.

source: BBC news