impact on sp, page-19

Giddleberry - its a valid comment - $185m of distributable income generated for 1/2 year 31.12.07.

However, please consider 3 points :

1) if you were a creditor of CNP - eg cleaning contractor - given you don't know whether the administrator is going to walk in any minute - would you advance CNP credit - chances are their trade creditors are getting nervous and have reduced their exposures accrodingly your credit control dept would have reduced your credit - their working capital will be being squeezed -

2) Staff have had bonus retention payments made to them (ref AFR) and increases in salaries to compensate for lack of value in shares offered as incentives. Their operating costs will have gone up markedly.

3) best practice financially = is fund long-term assets with long-term finance - not out of cashflow - its finance 101 - they won't do it.

The upshot is cashflow will I suggest be manageable but may get tighter - and they would not want to undermine medium term position and from a balance sheet perspective would want to fund the assets WEST LB have finance correctly. There is also the issue of preference - how would ANZ react as an unsecured creditor - if a "tail-end" charlie got paid first - I know how I would react.

BTW I used to be a banker (without the W).

PT