Time running out for NBNK as deadline for returning shareholders’ money looms
Transparent bleachers (business card holders) – 2
The Brains Trust blog – Where to find them….
Time running out for NBNK as deadline for returning shareholders’ money looms
Share
Time is running out for NBNK, the buyout vehicle set up to create a customer-focused High Street bank from the wreckage of the financial crisis.
When the firm launched on the stockmarket in August 2010 – raising £50m – it promised to return shareholders money within 18 months if they had failed to do a deal.
Pipe dream? NBNK wanted to establish a new banking force on the High Street
With the deadline just three weeks away NBNK is now backing down from its pledge.
NBNK is the brainchild of Lord Levene
and former Northern Rock boss Gary Hoffman who was drafted in after it
had to be rescued with taxpayers’ money.
Their dream of establishing a new High
Street force by picking up assets on the cheap now hangs by a thread
after a string of failed take-over bids.
In December last year they were pipped by the Co-op in their bid to snap up 632 branches from Lloyds.
They also lost out to Virgin Money in their attempts to buy 75 branches from state-backed Northern Rock.
It claims to have the full support of
shareholders – which include fund manager Invesco Perpetual and insurer
Aviva – to continue even if it remains empty handed at the end of the
month. But one major shareholder indicated it would be given short
shrift.
The future of the venture will hinge on a shareholder vote at NBNK’s annual meeting in the summer.
A spokesman said: ‘It’s business as
usual. We remain confident – there are still opportunities to create a
new challenger on the High Street.’
The bank was offered a glimmer of hope
when National Australia Bank last week indicated it would have to
restructure or sell off Yorkshire and Clydesdale Banks with their
network of 340 branches.
Category: Business
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
