Launch of MetroMOLA

[GPStone]

GPS - the first part of your statement regarding the origins of the units that operate as charities is broadly correct, but I'm not sute about the link to Network. My recollection is that this was established as a purely private sector company and still operates as such.

It was indeed formed as a purely private entity for commercial purposes, but Unit has identified exactly what I was getting at. They didn't shoe-horn/build their way into the sector through what you might think of as a normal start-up route.

Having said above that charities cannot retain large cash reserves, surely one of the answers to the discussion about overdrafts and a company's expenditure being 25% more than income is that companies with cash reserves do not need to negotiate overdrafts, they are merely drawing down on reserves from the good times.

Beamo

That's essentially right, providing they don't make losses. However, all self-respecting business directors will ensure they have credit facilities in place as fall-backs and even highly profitable businesses will rely on them to provide short-term cash cover for operating costs as they move profit around the business - the larger the business the more they might well rely on them regardless of their profit as the longer the tenticles of the various operating arms, the harder it is to reclaim cash or move it to where its needed at short notice. I would expect most of the larger businesses in archaeology will have relied heavily on these sorts of arrangements over the past couple of years as the shrinking market has progressively eaten into their cash reserves on a month to month basis and any form of restructuring as we've seen at a number of the larger firms will require intial investment/outlay which might require an overdraft or similar to cover it before reaping any subsequent financial 'reward', if it isn't simply about making the business viable at a basic level.