IBG in 2005

thinkBIG?

Now I see why your username has a question mark at the end - because you obviously know very little about IBG's business model.

"The only problem with this company is that a lot of small companys always go bust so then in turn IBG will not get paid. Plenty of small retailers will go bust next year! as the retail trade over the xmas period this year is very bad and companies are selling things at half price."

It's just as well that all merchant accounts with AF are prepaid then isn't it, meaning that AF won't suffer a bad debt as a result of one of their merchants going bust. Also a few of the many small merchants on AF going bust won't make much difference. In fact if merchants don't perform ok, a sign which a failing merchant might experience before going bust (i.e. bad products/offering, low sales) they may well be closed by AF before they got to that stage anyway.

Anyway, most merchants [retailers] with AF will have had a very good Xmas indeed - simply because they will have had their best Xmas ever and will have sold loads of stuff. Even now, a week past the supposed peak, traffic levels are still historically extremely high on AF, still being near all-time highs.

Personally, I think you're making a very good case for investing in IBG (and not DGM), as your main points seem to relate to risk - and IBG is about the best run company I've come across, unlike DGM.