All options on the table for future of AA and Saga, says owner "I haven't got a defined timetable on this," he said, "but the three inevitabilities of life are death, taxes and, in a private equity owned company, an exit event at some stage." Acromas was formed from the £6.15bn merger of AA and Saga in September 2007. Its private equity shareholders are CVC, Charterhouse and Permira, who are thought, at least in private, to be pushing for some form of exit of at least one of the main brands. Charterhouse is the largest investor, with 35.8pc, with the other two firms owning 19.9pc each, with employees owning 20.2pc and other investors controlling 4.2pc. No financial advisers have been appointed, however. The company's latest full-year accounts show that Acromas generated sales of £2.25bn, up from £2.11bn in the same period a year ago. Although the company does not strip divisional sales out by brand, it does so by type of business. Roadside services, which is thought to largely flow from the AA, saw sales rise marginally from £676.1m to £681m, while travel, which links largely to Saga, saw sales rise from £345.5m to £353.3m. Financial services, driven by both brands, rose 1.2pc to £771m. As a group, operating profit rose 5.3pc to £547.9m, while adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) - the preferred adjusted profit metric used by the private equity industry - rose 4.9cp to £620.8m. Mr Goodsell said that the businesses had remained resilient despite the general economic consumer malaise. "These are an exceptional set of results in what has been a challenging environment," he boasted, saying that the group's natural customer base - at the more affluent end of society - had helped to provide a "natural hedge" against the downturn. He noted that since the deal was completed, the group has grown by 50pc, and pointed to the fact that the ratio of third party net debt to Ebitda had fallen to 7.5 times from 10 times when the business was formed.