On returning to run the firm in 2005, after the ejection of the risk-averse Philip Purcell, he declared that it was under-leveraged and needed to push into mortgages, proprietary trading and private equity.
While it is not yet possible to determine how large such profits will actually be -- the terms of some of the transactions now under negotiation with the USSR make the accounting procedures applied to leveraged buyouts look simple -- in terms of the overall national trade picture, they are likely to remain a drop in the bucket.