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Is Dragon’s Den the new port of call for cash-strapped firms?
With banks hanging desperately onto funds and not lending, shareholders exhausted after a spate of cash calls and stock market flotations virtually non-existent, where’s a company exec to go for a bit of cash to fund a new venture? The answer, it appears, could be Dragon’s Den, the BBC’s business entertainment programme.
Usually the “Dragons”, five multi-millionaire investors whose experience ranges from hotels to telecoms and lingerie, have to decide whether or not to invest a couple of hundred thousand pounds to someone who has come up with a new idea in their back garden.
In an episode broadcast this weekend, however, Stephen Voller, the former chief executive of an AIM-listed company appeared in the Den to ask for a whopping 2.5 million pounds, the largest amount ever requested on the programme, for his new electric car venture.
While one dragon initially seemed keen, the others, Theo Paphitis in particular, roundly dismissed his idea as being far too risky, pointing out that his budget of 10 million pounds for development and launch was miniscule and would never produce a model worthy of competing with the big manufacturers. They stuck the boot in further by pointing out that when the car made to market in at least two years’ time it would already be outdated.
from The Great Debate UK:
A short circuit for electric cars
-- Neil Collins is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own --
LONDON, April 16 (Reuters) - Poor old Alistair Darling. The Chancellor is girding himself to deliver a truly ghastly Budget, and lined up a crowd-pleasing headline-grabber to distract attention from the financial horrors ahead.
Then his colleague transport minister Geoff Hoon goes and grabs the headlines for himself, revealing plans to bribe motorists to ditch the gas-guzzler for an electric car.
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The Wall
