The asset question: cash, equities or property?
What would you do with a billion quid? Sadly it's a conundrum the vast majority of us are unlikely to find ourselves grappling with.
Yet Admiral Taverns last week unveiled a refinancing arrangement that sees the UK's third largest tenanted pubco effectively sitting atop roughly that amount in what is generously labelled by us hacks as a "war chest".
According to Admiral, the funds - an amalgam of refinanced monies and bank debt - will be used either to buy more pubs or go towards an ambitious capex programme. Or both.
Let's assume it is to acquire; where will the pubco find a home for some or all of this lovely lolly? There may well be a few chunks of bottom-end stuff that might still be up for grabs in the coming months. But surely most pubcos will be done with selling off pubs for now. Won't they?
Admiral's Gary Landesberg thinks not. He's convinced there's more "housekeeping" to be done by some companies, and estate-enhancing opportunities will arise. He may be right. While many baulk at the type of pub his group buys, he has his model and he is happy enough sticking to it.
And if suitable deals aren't forthcoming? Landesberg says he's happy to sit on the money and earn a tidy sum in interest.
It seems he is not alone. With stock markets the world over getting royally stuffed, some investors feel moved to bale out and shift their pensions, life savings, etc, into cash.
Why, only last week The Times revealed that, mindful of a possible decline of up to 20 per cent in the UK stock market, an unnamed chairman of a large investment bank was moving his personal funds out of equities and into cash, where the yield might well be sedate, but at least it is safe.
Not everyone agrees with such a downbeat view on the future value of shares. Models abound, and for every doom merchant you'll like as not find someone who's been quaffing the Happy Juice.
That said, when high-ranking bankers make a bolt for the quayside, well, you've got to wonder, haven't you?
