He is reputedly Scotland’s richest man, but Sir Tom Hunter keeps details of his financial affairs pretty private. That said, there is no question that – should he wish to – he could finance the £43.5m($85.9m) purchase of the new shares his West Coast Capital is being offered by Dobbies. WCC is reckoned to be worth about £5.5bn.

The only question is whether Sir Tom would want to invest that money after apparently losing last year’s fight with Tesco to acquire control of Dobbies. WCC waited till the last moment to announce that it would not counterbid and Sir Tom accused Dobbie’s management of “rolling over” in accepting the Tesco offer.