Metro Bank CEO Daniel Frumkin has hinted that Barclays could be among the potential buyers of a £3bn chunk of the bank’s mortgage portfolio.
The revelation follows a tumultuous period for Metro Bank, which recently secured a last-minute £925m rescue deal after facing significant financial setbacks late on Sunday.
Last month, the regulator rejected the bank’s request to reduce capital requirements on its mortgage book, leading to a drastic plunge in its share price.
Metro Bank subsequently entered into a funding scramble, ultimately raising £325m in equity and £600m in debt refinancing. The rescue deal was led by Colombian billionaire Jaime Gilinski Bacal’s Spaldy Investments with the firm now becoming the majority shareholder in the bank with around 53% of the total shares.
Alongside this, Metro Bank has been widely reported to be in discussions to offload up to £3bn of its residential mortgages. Several high street banks, including NatWest, Lloyds, and Santander, were initially reported to be interested in acquiring portions of the mortgage book.
The recent hint from Frumkin came in response to a question posed by Barclays analyst Aman Rakkar. The CEO confirmed that the sale process had already generated interest from several potential buyers, cryptically adding that one of them is “not dissimilar to what’s on your paycheck.” The statement was first reported by Bloomberg and has led to speculation that Barclays is seriously considering the purchase.
Metro Bank aims to finalise the sale of its mortgage portfolio by the end of the year, Frumkin disclosed in a call with analysts and investors. The pending sale comes as part of Metro Bank’s broader efforts to stabilise its financial position and restructure its assets.
