Perpetual Motion

It's great to be Goldman Sachs. As underwriter of the Aer Lingus public share offering, and having advised a share price at the low end of the expected range, it made things very handy for Ryanair to start buying up the shares to launch their takeover bid. Not only does the Ryanair bid effectively put a floor on the price for those investors who got to buy in at the public offering price, but now Aer Lingus needs a legal and financial adviser to repel the Ryanair bid -- which will be Goldman Sachs! Luckily for Aer Lingus, Goldman Sachs will have "consultants" to help their fight in Brussels to block the bid on competition grounds -- 2 former competition commissioners of the same European Commission that will adjudicate the matter. As they say in Private Eye, trebles all round!