LDV: Good precedent

The UK government’s decision to advance a £5m loan to struggling vanmaker LDV begs a question – why did it lend the money itself? Even the struggling UK banks could have afforded a loan of this size. And the state, which has controlling stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, certainly has some influence. But commercial bankers would have struggled to justify the LDV loan. The bridge financing is supposed to keep the company, controlled by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, afl...