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Metro Bank has confirmed it is in “advanced” talks with its investors over raising £350m in capital “to support its growth”.
Editor at Credit Strategy. Previously held roles at Accountancy Age, Accountancy Daily and the Leicester Mercury.
“Metro Bank has commenced final discussions with existing shareholders and new investors, and the feedback continues to be positive,” it said in a statement.
The challenger bank’s share price has fallen significantly, dropping 6.8 percent to 496 pence each when trading opened on Monday, May 13. In March 2018, they traded at more than £40 each.
It comes after it discovered an accounting error which miscategorised commercial property and buy-to-let mortgages and, in turn, over-reported its capital ratios.
As part of its recovery, the bank said in its Q1 results it is considering selling more than £1bn worth of loans at the centre of issue, although no decision has been made.
The challenger bank has had to take to Twitter to reassure customers over its financial position after rumours spread that it was facing difficulties.
“Metro Bank remains a safe and secure haven for our customers’ money,” the bank told one customer. “We are a profitable bank, rated number one for personal current account service and committed to serving our 1.7 million customer accounts.”
Hi Rekesh, please do not be concerned. We had a solid start to Q1:
— Metro Bank (@Metro_Bank) May 11, 2019
o We added 97,000 new customer accounts to a total of 1.7m
o We continue to be profitable and underlying profit before tax in the quarter was £6.9m
o Lending grew by 7% in the quarter to £15.2bn 1/4
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