Sunday, Sep 21, 2008
The next one to go under
Telegraph: FSA in talks to find buyer for B&B
The City regulator is involved in secret talks to engineer a takeover of Bradford & Bingley as it seeks a permanent solution to secure the future of the embattled buy-to-let mortgage lender, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.
Last week, Moody's, the credit rating agency, downgraded B&B debt to one notch above junk status, underlining concerns about its financial health.
Posted by little professor @ 10:01 AM (784 views) Add Comment
6 Comments
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1. paul said...
Get your money out, quick!
2. Fwiw said...
No doubt on Monday B&B shares will rocket as it will be spun as good news just like HBOS and LTSB!
This lame company needs to be put out of it's misery! Agree with Paul - get your money out quick!
3. planning4acrash said...
We've been banging on about B&B for years now. Anybody here with money still on them who aren't a new member, should get their heads sorted and start listening to good independent advice that they can corroborate for themselves with all of the links we give. How about Paragon, and all the rest.
I was able to save my dad £5000 from this site by getting him to sell Northern Crock shares whilst they slid. This site is a great resource folks. Use it whilst its still here. Google Internet 2, and 3.
4. jack c said...
FROM THIS IS MONEY - (Readers comments are also worth a look)
Bradford & Bingley 'on the edge' Alan O'Sullivan, This is Money 20 September 2008, 5:00am
While the eyes of the investment world have been trained on the merger of HBOS and Lloyds TSB this week, Bradford & Bingley has a measure of its risk soar. HBOS may have been in danger of imploding last weekend, but has been pulled back to rude health by news of the Lloyds deal, which has also helped to bolster the stability of the UK banking industry as a whole. But one exception was Bradford & Bingley, it has seen the credit default swap (CDS) rate on the bank, which can be used to measure bank risk, increase from 490 to 683 basis points over the past week. Such a high cost of insurance is similar to the rates on Icelandic banks when fears erupted over the stability of the Icelandic banking system earlier this year. Peter Smart, director of bond research with stock brokers Brewin Dolphin, said: 'You can see the sigh of relief from the industry as it became clear the Lloyds merger would go through. Lloyds was originally pulled down for a day as the stability of HBOS leveled out, but now they seem to have both stabilised. 'But the case of Bradford & Bingley is spooky. The writing is on the wall there. It looks as if it's on the brink of collapse and may need a bailout as well.' The security of Bradford & Bingley has continued to reach critical levels as the rest of the industry begins to find its feet, according to analysis of instruments used to measure bank risk. CDS rates on the banking sector help to measure the fundamental risk in a bank, and have been gradually dropping across the industry since the announcement of the Lloyds-HBOS deal. The CDS rate for HBOS, which dropped from 410 basis points on Wednesday to 230 yesterday afternoon, mean the bank now has to pay £23,000 to ensure every £1m of its debt over the next five years.
The Lloyds CDS rate rose on fears over the HBOS merger earlier in the week, but levelled out yesterday afternoon to a respectable 160 basis points, dragging rates for the industry as a whole down with it. Keith Bowman from stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown added: 'There has been a negative stance on this [B&B] for quite some time. It's a major concern.' The share price of Bradford & Bingley is down just over 90% over the past year, although it rebounded 20% yesterday to close at 30p. The rest of the banking industry rebounded 22%, while HBOS was up 32.68% at 229p and Lloyds finished up 24.53% at 295¾p.
5. Neo-serf said...
@ planning4acrash said - Google Internet 2, and 3.
What do yo mean by this?
6. renting2 said...
Probably:
http://internet3.sourceforge.net/
http://www.internet2.edu/