Metro Bank receives private equity-backed takeover interest
High street lender Metro Bank has been approached for a takeover which could take it off the London Stock Exchange, Sky News has reported.
Bosses at Metro Bank have reportedly been approached in the last two weeks by private equity firm Pollen Street about an offer to take it private.
The takeover would follow a turbulent year and a half for the FTSE 250 lender after it nearly collapsed before it was rescued through a £925 bailout, partly financed by Colombian billionaire and now majority owner Jaime Gilinski Bacal and £600m of new debt.
Shares in Metro Bank have jumped by some 200 per cent over the last year, with its recovery from near-insolvency involving hundreds of job cuts and sales of loan asset portfolios.
It is still underperforming relative to its market capitalisation of £3.5bn in 2010, with its current value standing at over £750m.
Pollen Street is one of the major shareholders in Shawbrook, the specialist bank which has previously proposed a merger with Metro Bank.
The firm has looked to combine Shawbrook with other corporate companies such as Starling Bank rather than a possible stock market listing, Sky News’ Mark Kleinman reported.
Both Pollen Street and Metro Bank did not comment on the reports.
LSE at risk of Metro Bank delisting
A buyout of Metro Bank and subsequent exit from the London Stock Exchange could deliver another blow to City administrators’ hopes of boosting UK markets.
Former London Stock Exchange Group chief Xavier Rolet last year said there was a “real threat” UK firms would ditch their listings after 2024 saw the biggest number of companies either choosing to delist or transfer their primary listing since the financial crash.
A quarter of the biggest firms who chose to list in the London Stock Exchange in 2021 have left, according to analysis by the Financial Times.
Those firms included electric vehicle charging firm Pod Point and Alphwave, which agreed a $2.4bn takeover by US semiconductor group Qualcomm.
UK fintech Wise is one of the latest firms to reveal it was planning to transfer its primary listing to the US as it hoped to find a “potential pathway to inclusion in major US indices”.
Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, told the Treasury Committee last Tuesday that the British market was becoming less attractive for various reasons.
“There is this question around how attractive UK companies have become, particularly to US buyers,” Rathi said, adding that the UK’s listing rules were not to blame for a lack of IPOs.