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Alan Sugar's Roadshow To Boost Bank Lending


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HOLA441

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle6445838.ece

THE prime minister’s newly appointed business champion, Sir Alan Sugar, is planning to lead a roadshow of bankers around the country in an effort to get them lending to small and medium-sized enterprises.

In his first interview since taking up the new position, Sugar – who will be given a peerage – told The Sunday Times that getting the banks to start lending was at the “top of his agendaâ€.

Sugar, 62, will set up a panel, headed by himself and including a number of his business associates, to mediate between the banks and companies.

He has already mooted the idea with government and will start pitching it to bankers as early as next week.

Claude Littner, a former chief executive of Sugar’s Amstrad International and boss of Tottenham Hotspur, will sit on the panel.

“The banks have been told to help out and lend, but from what I hear that’s not happening,†said Sugar.

“I can’t put pressure on them but I can offer practical advice. The panel will act as a buffer between the banks and businesses. We can say ‘if it was my money I would invest with this company but not that company’. The banks need a bit of teaching too.â€

Sugar’s appointment comes at a desperate time for the government, prompting many to suggest Gordon Brown’s decision was only intended to deflect attention from Labour’s problems.

“It’s fully understandable that it may look like that, but I’ve got to ignore that and focus on what I genuinely feel needs doing,†Sugar said. “As far as I’m concerned, this is politically neutral.â€

Brown approached Sugar four weeks ago. “He said he’d like me to take a look at the problems that exist for small businesses and report them back to the government and to look at what the government is offering and make suggestions on how we could improve the situation for these companies – it’s as simple as that.â€

Sugar will report to Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, Baroness Vadera, the business minister, and Lord Davies, the trade minister.

Why haven't we seen this before, clearly what was needed to solve the subprime crisis from America was a roadshow.

This is a simple cost effective idea, why haven't we seen this before?

All what Gordon Brown now needs to do is go on a roadshow of his own and he'll win the next election.

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HOLA442

This crop of failed, bailed-out housing bubble joy-riding "banks" is not fit for purpose. They neither have the staff nor the intent to run in anyway like they used - in generally supporting the economy, they are commission scrapers and money injectors into the greatest ponzi scam this country has ever seen. The bank outlets are staffed by babbling underlings who don't know the first thing about running a business, get one as a "business banker" and they'll immediately switch off if you don't want one of their mortgage/pension/ other products. Want a loan - they'll offer it if it is tied to housing equity, unless of course it is an opportunity to screw you down for the rest of your life and you are a student, throw a bit of debt their way and the fees and charges will rack up. Manufacturing is finished in this country, it neither has the support nor any way of thriving in the gross cost-inflated environment, loans to two-bit property companies have largely seen to that, industrial and retail space at premium prices with no demand (or ability to function) at the rents required to pay off bloated debts used to buy them up.

It has been in the banker's interest to turn the screw as much as possible and actively put businesses out of business, gifted money by the BOE and then go and charge 18% for an overdraft, total usury, it is a scam, the more pressure the banks put of small and medium sized businesses the more they have arm-twisted the govt and the BOE to bail them out, it worked a treat.

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HOLA443

How much will this "britain needs lending" roadshow cost? They could self-fund it by televising it and having a phone in to decide who gets the money.

It's sick - if this clown sugar doesn't realise that the economy must shrink then he's much more insane than I thought.

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So Alan Sugar is going to advise on which businesses should get the money. That isn't open to to abuse at all is it.

This is all about to get so much worse, I despair.

Dear God, someone save us!

Edit, by the money, I mean loans.

Edited by Tonkers
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“I can’t put pressure on them but I can offer practical advice. The panel will act as a buffer between the banks and businesses. We can say ‘if it was my money I would invest with this company but not that company’. The banks need a bit of teaching too.â€

Are they going to televise this as a national Dragons Den with voting?

The government have taken your tax money and given it to the bank, now you get to decide who it is going to be lent to. Is it:

a) Grant Bovey with his idea for profiting from property market falls

B) A Mr A Sugar of north London who wishes to expand his property empire

c) Prince Charles to fund a new product line of overpriced organic turnips

d) A radical new dub collective with a street sensibility

e) Tate Modern to buy Tracey Emin's soiled laundry for the nation and prevent it being shipped out to Chinese landfill

Calls will cost no more than 50p from a landline but considerably more from a mobile phone. And GCHQ will be recording your call.

Alan Sugar is 83

Gordon is a moron

We are so screwed

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HOLA449

FFS, we have around 20,000 fully kitted bank managers, who are turning down loans from companies, who themselves are backed by accountants and lawyers, and it needs a guy in a bus (lets hope its not a fleets of luxury coaches with rooms and showers in at public expense).

what is he going to say: go on Mr local Bank manager, lend this guy a few coppers, its worth a punt.

Shame the punt is savers money and for me, interest rates are low enough already.

Sugar: Its good idea, but you didnt really understand the task, your team is bound to let you down: Fire yourself.

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HOLA4411

Alan will advise the banks on lending policy and they will gently advise Lord Sugar to "f*ck off and mind his own business".

He's already said he can't force banks to lend so what's the point of this PR stunt? Appealing to bankers better nature and their sense of fairness won't work.... they have neither.

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HOLA4414

Surely this is testimony to the fact that Alan Sugar is at a loose end in a sinking economy if he has to fill his time rallying around the UK like some clown, pretending to know who's credit worthy and who isn't.

Gordon, if you're reading this - what a f**king ridiculous stunt. You should be ashamed of yourself. You might just as well hire a gang of fire-eaters and jugglers, perhaps a couple of performing seals, stick them on the back of a truck and drive around the shires throwing bundles of freshly printed banknotes into the streets.

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HOLA4415
Surely this is testimony to the fact that Alan Sugar is at a loose end in a sinking economy if he has to fill his time rallying around the UK like some clown, pretending to know who's credit worthy and who isn't.

Gordon, if you're reading this - what a f**king ridiculous stunt. You should be ashamed of yourself. You might just as well hire a gang of fire-eaters and jugglers, perhaps a couple of performing seals, stick them on the back of a truck and drive around the shires throwing bundles of freshly printed banknotes into the streets.

Please don't give him ideas like this, even in jest

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HOLA4416
He's trying to use his government connections to strong arm the banks into lending him some money possibly?

Sugar: Look at this one Justin, its a little known company we came accross while driving randomly around...looks a good bet..this...er whats it called??....ah yes, Amstrad, nice products, needs some cash.

Justin: high pitched horsey laugh:"Must be Pimms Oclock then" High pitched horsey laugh.

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He's trying to use his government connections to strong arm the banks into lending him some money possibly?

'Most' of his money is tied up in this business

http://www.amsprop.com/portfolio.html

So, how is commercial property fairing due to the collapse in credit I wonder? :unsure:

I have no idea what sort of debt he is carrying and to whom he owes it, perhaps if someone has access to the companies house/annual reports database they could have a look and see how he's doing, but it cannot be right that Sugar is now responsible for driving lending via the govt. owned banks.

He must have one of the biggest VIs for seeing commercial property rise of anyone in the country.

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He's out of his depth, knows nothing about the parliamentary system and will soon realise that small to medium business owner strong arm tactics won't work in this role. He looked like a gibbering idiot talking to Adam Boulton this morning.

SOunds like Prime Minister Material to me.

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Exactly. Love the property portfolio on the link. Well if that has fallen by the average 43.6% average from peak (quoted below), he is in extremely deep doo doo. I assume he manages to be calm because he has salted money away and that if the property firm goes belly up, then that is the banks problem...which could encourage them to continue lending.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaki.../breaking49.htm

I'm sure he's got a few million tucked away elsewhere but that little lot looks to be mutliple hundreds of millions. So it all depends how much he's in hock. Amsprop Estates Limited - if anyone can get hold of the annual report. We know his mate Kemsley (both former Spurs directors) has just gone t1ts up as well so it is likely he's feeling the pressure. Would government owned banks really pull the plug on him now he's Gordon's best mate and bank Tsar even if they wanted to?? (All hypothetical of course). We know Sugar plays dirty from the way he secured the BSKYB deal for the league in '92 (?) for Murdoch.

Edit: Hopefully the FT will be all over this next week.

Edited by Red Kharma
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HOLA4422

1. If banks need the likes of Sugar to run their business bankers should take a cut in pay. They should take a cut anyway.

2. If Sugar knows so much about banking he should just open his own bank and start lending and show the others how to do it. That other bloke did that with Virgin. The PM would likely give him billions of taxpayers money to fund "SugarDebt".

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HOLA4423
He's out of his depth, knows nothing about the parliamentary system and will soon realise that small to medium business owner strong arm tactics won't work in this role. He looked like a gibbering idiot talking to Adam Boulton this morning.

You could be talking about any one of them.

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HOLA4424
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle6445838.ece

Why haven't we seen this before, clearly what was needed to solve the subprime crisis from America was a roadshow.

This is a simple cost effective idea, why haven't we seen this before?

All what Gordon Brown now needs to do is go on a roadshow of his own and he'll win the next election.

Even better: they should put together a TV show in which a panel of five bankers sit with piles of cash and people who own small businesses could come in and pitch to them as to why their idea or business should be invested in.

They could have that funny looking squinty guy on it to introduce each contestant. What's his name? Gordon Brown.

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