Even adjusting for the credit cycle Barclays reckons its return is now 19 per

Even adjusting for the credit cycle, Barclays reckons its return is now 19 per cent and rising. If this is sustainable, then the shares ought to be on a significantly higher rating. Indeed the problem for most ordinary folk with these profits is not that they are too low, but that they seem excessive. Outside the City they will be viewed as the misgotten spoils of the banking oligopoly.There's no doubt who has the more realistic take on this. As always it is the general public, for the greatest threat to banking profits comes not from the sort of fancy acquisitions and ill-judged lending that used to lay them low, but from new competition, attracted by the very high returns now showing through Barclays, then, faces a double challenge Getting BZW back on course is going to be hard enough.

Tougher still will be defending the franchise from the army of newcomers being assembled against it.. Granada made further progress on its disposal programme yesterday when it agreed to sell the Welcome Break motorway service stations to Investcorp, the Bahrain-based investment group, for a top-of-the-range price of pounds 476m. The deal ends Granada's virtual monopoly of British motorway service station sites that has existed since last year's pounds 3.9bn takeover of the Forte hotels group. Granada is also selling the Westbury hotels in London and New York to Chelsfield, the property group, for pounds 90m. Chelsfield plans to extend and refurbish the two hotels and incorporate them into the Wentworth Club, which owns the Surrey golf club. It is possible the Wentworth Club will then be floated on the stock market.The price tag of the Welcome Break deal surprised the City, which had expected a pounds 400m-pounds 450m deal in spite of a raft of bidders thought to include Asda, Tesco, National Express and venture capital group CinVen.

Richard Warner, a member of the Investcorp management committee, denied the group had paid too much: "It may appear a full price but we view the company as a strategic platform to develop other motorway service station businesses."After the sale of Thorn Lighting Group, Investcorp has no UK businesses but said yesterday it was on the hunt for more UK deals. "We have ambitions to acquire companies in the UK, Europe and internationally," Mr Warner said.Investcorp has owned several well-known businesses in Europe, including Gucci and Mondi, the German fashion company. It plans to invest pounds 50m in the 21 Welcome Break sites and seek further sites. A service station on the M40 near Oxford is planned and Investcorp estimates there is room for a further 15-20 service stations if planning permission can be obtained.Michael Guthrie, the entrepreneur who sold his Pavilion motorway business to Granada in 1995, has been appointed chairman and acting chief executive of the Welcome Break chain.