By Christian Moess Laursen
Metro Bank said it secured 925 million pounds ($1.13 billion) in funding to shore up its balance-sheet issues, in a move that will hit current investors and bondholders and make Colombian billionaire Jaime Gilinski Bacal the bank’s controlling shareholder.
The U.K. lender said Sunday that the package agreed with investors consists of a GBP325 million capital raise, split between GBP150 million of new shares from its largest shareholders and GBP175 million new debt from bondholders, and GBP600 million of debt refinancing.
The share placing has been priced at 30 pence a share, which represents a 34% discount from last week’s closing price.
Spaldy Investments, the bank’s largest shareholder, contributed GBP102 million, which will see it become the controlling shareholder of Metro Bank upon completion of the transaction, with a shareholding around 53%. Spaldy Investments is owned by Jaime Gilinski Bacal.
The debt refinancing involves holders of Metro Bank’s tier 2 bonds taking a 40% to 45% haircut on their investments.
The funding negotiations has been closely watched by the Bank of England, which said in a statement on Sunday that it welcomed the steps taken to strengthen Metro’s capital position.
Write to Christian Moess Laursen at [email protected]
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