Metro Bank’s stocks plummeted last week after the bank failed to whip up excitement about its bond offering. Now it seems activist investors are circling the challenger bank.
Last Monday, Metro Bank abandoned its £250m bond issue after just a few hours after investors snubbed the offering. This sent its share price into freefall, plummeting from £2.72 on Monday morning to £1.56 on Friday morning.
The price did rally slightly over the weekend and by the open on Monday it traded at £1.89, which is still a far cry from the £40.18 it traded at in March 2018.
Now a report in The Times suggest that activist investors are looking into buying stock in the beleaguered firm. One of them is reportedly the US fund-management company Elliot Advisors, part of Elliott Management Corporation. Other investors are reportedly looking to buy equity stakes or new debt to access cheap funding.
Metro Bank’s problems begun in January when a serious accounting error shaved hundreds of millions of pounds from its value.
It might not be the only challenger bank facing some problems at the moment. Monzo was recently forced to withdrawn its premium offering, raising concerns that there might be more trouble ahead for the bank.
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