© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Signage outside a Metro Bank in London, Britain, May 22, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
By Paul Mayo Cerqueiro and Amy-Jo Crowley
LONDON (Reuters) – British specialist lender Shawbrook has made a bid for rival Co-op Bank and is weighing a new bid for embattled Metro Bank, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday.
Shawbrook, backed by private equity groups BC Partners and Pollen Street, submitted an indicative bid for Co-op in recent days, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Separately, Shawbrook is considering a possible new bid for London-listed Metro Bank after several failed approaches earlier in the year, the sources said.
There is no certainty that a transaction will materialize, they warned.
Shawbrook, Pollen Street and Co-op Bank declined to comment. BC Partners and Metro Bank could not immediately be reached for comment.
Metro Bank has seen its shares fall after news emerged that it had hired advisers to shore up its balance sheet after failing to secure key capital relief from banking regulators.
The bank has been exploring options to raise up to 600 million pounds ($734.28 million) of capital through equity and debt injections and asset sales.
Britain’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) is sounding out buyers over the weekend in the hope of finding a solution for ailing Metro Bank before markets open on Monday morning.
For Shawbrook, an acquisition of Co-op or Metro Bank would give it greater scale and access to current deposit accounts, a cheaper source of funding for its loans than savings.
Reuters previously reported that Co-op Bank’s owners had set an early October deadline for suitors.
($1 = 0.8171 pounds)
