David Prosser: BP should hold its nerve and resist begging for funds from the Middle East - Business Comment, Business - The Independent

If it worked for Barclays, then why not for BP? When the bank found itself laid low by the credit crunch and the subsequent regulatory pressure on funding, it turned to the Middle East, rather than the British government, for support, securing injections of capital from Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

Now BP – with its value devastated by the ongoing Gulf oil-spill disaster – is exploring similar options, with new investment possible from a number of Middle Eastern state-backed funds as BP seeks to save itself from opportunistic predators.

For Barclays, the decision to sell a stake to the Middle East looks to have worked out well. That it avoided having to add Her Majesty's Government to its shareholder register enabled the bank to avoid the humiliating strictures to which the State-owned banks have since been subjected in the UK. By contrast, its Middle-Eastern stakeholders have been models of restraint, pursuing the sort of hands-off approach to their investments that managements dream about.