Metro Bank seeks bids inside weeks for £3bn mortgage e-book

Metro Bank has set a quickfire timetable for rivals to snap up a considerable chunk of its mortgage e-book.

Sky News understands that Metro Bank needs bidders to submit affords at first of subsequent month, with Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and NatWest Group all having an indicated an curiosity.

News of the timetable comes days after the excessive avenue financial institution mentioned it had secured a £925m refinancing package deal, which includes the Colombian billionaire Jaime Gilinski Bacal turning into its majority shareholder.

Metro Bank had develop into the topic of questions on its survival after Sky News revealed this month that it had drafted in City advisers to lift a whole bunch of tens of millions of kilos of latest capital.

In whole, it’s elevating about £150m of latest fairness and £175m of latest debt, whereas it is usually refinancing £600m of present borrowings.

Analysts have questioned whether or not the mortgage e-book sale can have implications from a good worth accounting perspective, however Daniel Frumkin, Metro Bank’s chief government, advised final week {that a} sale can be wrapped up earlier than the top of the yr.

Metro Bank, which has about 2.7 million prospects, turned the primary new lender to open on Britain’s excessive streets in over 100 years when it launched in 2010.

It affords present accounts, enterprise accounts, private loans and insurance coverage merchandise, and employs about 4,000 individuals, working from about 75 branches throughout the nation.

Metro Bank has been compelled to promote property up to now, asserting a deal in December 2020 to promote a portfolio of owner-occupied residential mortgages to NatWest Group for as much as £3.1bn.

Metro Bank declined to touch upon the mortgage e-book bid deadline.