Saga boss Lance Batchelor wheels out a familiar bar chart every time the over-50s insurance and travel company reports profits.
It depicts a falling red line, representing Saga’s shrinking debt, set against rising profits. The contrast with its former stablemate, the AA, is stark — and probably intentional. Ever since Saga split from the breakdown company in 2014, when the private equity-owned financial services behemoth Acromas was broken up, their fortunes have diverged.
On Wednesday, shares in the AA crashed almost 30% as it slashed its dividend and warned on profits.
It gave no clues about how it plans to cut its debt pile of about £2.8bn, which has stayed stubbornly high since floating.
Saga has been living more conservatively since floating. Its debt has