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Shares in Metro Bank were up 13% at 124.83p as investors welcomed reports that the high street lender had been approached by investment firm Pollen Street Capital.
The news was first reported by Sky News over the weekend and discussions are believe to be in the early stages with no certainty of any deal. Metro Bank launched in 2010 as the self-described first high street bank to open in the UK in over 100 years, but struggled after an accounting error was discovered in 2019.
The bank has been slowly turning its fortunes around, in autumn 2023 it secured a £925 million rescue package spearheaded by the Colombian billionaire James Gilinski Baca.
But Metro had to scrap its seven-day-a-week opening hours – a central selling point – and embark on an etimated £80 million cost-cutting exercise involving the loss of 1,000 jobs.
Earlier this year Metro’s strategy of switching its focus away from deposit accounts to more profitable specialist mortgages and commercial loans appeared to be paying off and in the first three months of 2025 it reported total lending of £11.8billion.
UK specialist lender Shawbrook in January was also rumoured to be weighing a sale or a London listing at a valuation of £2 billion.
But any deal to take Metro Bank private would mean it leaving the London Stock Exchange. Last year a record number of companies around 45, delisted from the UK market as a result of mergers and acquisitions.
Earlier this month one of the main UK regulators denied that the UK’s regulatory regime was the reason for companies leaving the London exchange.
Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority made the comments, reported by Reuters, after the fintech Wise said it was moving its listing to the UK
He said: “I’m not hearing it’s regulatory, I’m hearing its much wider,” when asked why companies were moving their listings elsewhere.
