Metro Bank strikes deal to shore up balance sheet

Metro Bank has struck a deal with investors that it says will secure its future after newspaper reports suggested it needed to raise cash to shore up its balance sheet.

In a statement, the UK lender said it had raised £325m in new funding, as well as refinancing £600m of debt.

Its boss said the deal marked "a new chapter" for the troubled lender.

Shares in the bank plunged earlier this week before recovering ground on Friday.

The bank has insisted throughout that its finances remain strong and it continues to meet all regulatory requirements.

Metro Bank was founded in the wake of the financial crisis in 2010 and was the first to open in the UK in more than 100 years.

It positioned itself as a so-called "challenger" bank to the big High Street names, with its promise of being open seven days a week.

It now has 2.7 million customers and holds about £15bn worth of deposits in 76 branches.

Serious questions were raised after newspaper reports emerged about its finances earlier this week. The Financial Times also reported over the weekend that several rivals were weighing up potential bids for part of the business.

But in the late announcement on Sunday, it said that it had secured a capital raise of £325m from existing shareholders and new backers.

Spaldy Investments, Metro Bank's biggest shareholder, is contributing £102m.

Spaldy, an investment vehicle owned by Colombian billionaire investor Jamie Gilinski Bacal, will become the controlling shareholder once the transaction completes, Metro Bank said, with a 53% stake in the company.

Metro Bank's chief executive Daniel Frumkin said this marked a new chapter which meant the lender could continue expanding, and would become more profitable over the coming years.

"Our strong franchise is underpinned by our loyal customer base and engaged colleagues and we will continue to develop the Metro Bank offer," he said.

In July, Metro Bank said it planned to open 11 more across the north of England in 2024 and 2025.

But the lender has faced a number of challenges in recent years after an accounting scandal in 2019, which led to some top executives, including its founder, leaving the company.

More recently, Metro Bank had asked City watchdogs for permission to use its own ratings system to value its mortgages and its assets.

But regulators turned down the request last month, saying that they wanted the bank to use an external rating system for now.

In the statement on Sunday, Metro Bank said that it was also still in discussions about raising cash by selling up to £3bn of its residential mortgages.

Homeowners with mortgages from Metro Bank do not face any immediate change. Some customers might end up having their loans managed by another bank in the future.

The Bank of England, which had been monitoring the situation closely, welcomed the announcement.