CYBG PLC agreed to buy Virgin Money Holdings UK PLC for about £1.7 billion (US$2.3 billion) in an all-stock transaction, creating a bank with about 6 million customers to challenge Britain’s largest lenders.
The purchase of the Richard Branson-backed bank gives consumer and business lender CYBG greater scale, potential cost savings and access to the firm’s presence on the high street.
The deal adds to a number of transactions among a handful of smaller banks in the UK as they seek to raise funds and steal business from the nation’s top lenders.
The combined company would have about £80 billion of assets, a statement yesterday said.
Virgin Money’s shares rose 2.4 percent to £3.634 as of 8:08am in London.
Through Friday’s close, the stock had gained about 14 percent since CYBG, formerly the British division of National Australia Bank Ltd, initially made an offer last month.
It slightly sweetened its all-stock proposal earlier this month by offering Virgin Money shareholders more of the merged company.
“Combining these two businesses has much strategic logic, in our view, with CYBG bringing strengths in SME [small and medium enterprises] banking and current accounts, complementing Virgin Money’s well-recognized brand and strength in credit cards,” Shore Capital analyst Gary Greenwood said in a note to investors.
Virgin Money shareholders would receive 1.2125 new CYBG shares under the offer. Owners of the Branson company would own about 38 percent of the combined group.
The tie-up is expected to generate £120 million of annual pre-tax cost synergies by the end of the financial year ending September 2021, the statement said.
CYBG chairman Jim Pettigrew, CEO David Duffy and chief financial officer Ian Smith would retain their current positions in the new group, according to the statement.
Virgin Money CEO Jayne-Anne Gadhia would stay on as an adviser for an unspecified time.
“By combining two of the UK’s leading challenger banks, we will create a national, full-service bank with the capabilities needed to compete effectively with the large incumbent banks,” Duffy said in the statement.
“The strategic rationale is clear and offers both sets of shareholders real value, material earnings accretion and enhanced capital generation,” Duffy added.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last