Metro Bank has scrapped its £3bn mortgage portfolio sale, citing market conditions.
“The board has carefully considered a potential sale of up to £3bn of residential mortgages and concluded that, given the prevailing market environment, it is in the best interests of shareholders to retain the existing loan portfolio,” the lender said in a stock market statement on Friday evening.
The move comes after it entered into exclusive talks with Barclays to sell the portfolio last month as it restructures its finances, according to Sky News.
Metro shares lifted 2.6% to 37.4p in mid-morning trading today, valuing the business at £85.6m. Its stock has fallen more than 60% since the beginning of the year.
Also, last month Metro said it plans to make around 850 job cuts, or 20% of its workforce, as it reviews seven-day opening hours and implements £50m of cost savings.
It said it is in “discussions with the Financial Conduct Authority about the customer implications of any such changes”.
The bank expects to complete its cost reduction plan during the first quarter of 2024 and will book a £10m to 15m one-off restructuring charge this year.
Its new £50m cost savings plan comes on top of £30m of savings outlined in a refinancing plan approved by shareholders last month.
The lender, which has around 2.7 million customers and holds about £15bn worth of deposits, was founded in 2010 and was the first high-street bank launch in more than 100 years. It operates from 75 UK branches.
In 2019, the bank suffered a £900m accounting scandal, when it emerged that the risk attached to some of its mortgage loans had been underestimated. The business and some of its senior officers were fined £10m for misleading investors.
