City grandee Lord Levene back in race for Lloyds branches
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UPDATED:
21:45 GMT, 12 April 2012
City grandee Lord Levene has
launched a fresh bid to buy 632
Lloyds branches, in a last ditch
attempt by his NBNK venture to
create a new bank to take on the
established High Street giants.
The move marks a humiliating
rebuke to its rival the Co-op,
which was picked over NBNK to
enter exclusive talks with Lloyds
in December.
But growing fears that the deal
– dubbed Project Verde – could
fall through has emboldened the
challenger bank, which yesterday
put a revised offer on the
table.
Grandee: Lord Levene believes NBNK has the right strategy to run a large-scale banking operation
Concerns over financing, the
lack of banking experience on its
main board, and suspicions that
it may have bitten off more than
it can chew have dogged the Coop
over the last few weeks.
It has led to speculation that
Lloyds will resort to its back-up
plan of floating the Verde business
on the stock market.
Lloyds was ordered to hive off
the branches by the European
Commission as a condition of
taking 21billion of taxpayers’
money.
NBNK, headed by former
Northern Rock boss Gary Hoffman
and backed by City big hitters
including fund manager
Invesco Perpetual and insurer
Aviva, was yesterday touting its
bid as a more attractive
alternative.
It hopes a key selling point will
be allowing shareholders –
including the government which
owns a 41 per cent stake – to receive
their cash directly or hang on to
shares in the hope the new business
will prosper.
NBNK said the bid would provide
more certainty over price
for shareholders than a float.
Its offer is understood to be
over 1.5billion, closer to the underlying
value of Lloyds’ assets than
the value its share price is trading
at.
Levene said NBNK has ‘the
right board, management, strategy
and experience to run and
grow a large-scale banking
operation’.
NBNK has pledged to create a customer-focused retail bank
which does not pay short-term
bonuses to staff.
Proposals include earlier opening
hours in City branches and
later opening hours in commuter
towns for those coming back
from work.
As part of the deal it will also
share the costs with Lloyds of sectioning
off the 623 branches and
setting up as a separate business.
The bid, which will infuriate the
Co-op, is the last chance saloon
for NBNK.
It is already on borrowed time
after missing its self-imposed
deadline of the end of February
to land a major deal for
investors.
Some of its biggest backers
have already indicated they are
running out of patience and
NBNK said last night it would be
returning money raised from
shareholders if the revised bid
was rejected.
Lloyds acknowledged receipt of
the bid but said it would continue
to negotiate solely with the
Co-op while preparing the Verde
business for a float.