Paulson nets £100m from RBS slide

• Hedge fund manager profits from short-selling
• Bets also made on HBOS, Lloyds TSB and Barclays

by Jill Treanor, Nick Fletcher and Andrew Clark in New York

Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson has made a £100m profit by betting that the Royal Bank of Scotland's share price would fall dramatically, according to calculations by the Guardian, adding fuel to the debate about the impact of short-selling on bank stocks.

New York-based Paulson, who made more than $3bn by betting against the US housing market, now appears to be profiting from positions placed on the assumption that bank shares would tumble in the aftermath of the market chaos caused by the demise of the sub-prime mortgage industry.

His hedge fund, Paulson & Co, was one of the few to trade through the ban imposed on short-selling by the Financial Services Authority in September to protect the rescue takeover of HBOS by Lloyds TSB. On the basis of the disclosures that his company has made since then, the Guardian estimates Paulson is likely to have made a profit of £100m - and possibly more - after making around 240p on each of the RBS shares he sold.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/27/short-selling-rbs-banking