Cash-strapped mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley plc presents the Financial Services Authority with its first major test since the Northern Rock plc debacle.
Chastened by the nationalization of the Newcastle mortgage lender, the regulator has mobilized a slew of rival banks to prevent the implosion of Bradford & Bingley. Six banks join B&B's four largest shareholders in agreeing to buy shares in an emergency rights issue that looks to raise £400 million ($789.5 million) for the lender. TPG Capital had planned to buy a 23% stake in B&B, but scrapped that idea on July 3.
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Bradford & Bingley's shares were trading at 42 pence by early afternoon in London Wednesday -- well below the 55 pence price of the rights issue though up almost 24% from Tuesday's historic low.
In advertising and marketing sector, Martin Sorrell's WPP Group plc ended almost three months of deliberations with the launch of a hostile £1.08 billion bid for market research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres plc. In response, the target scrapped an agreed merger with GfK AG so that its German peer might counter WPP with a competing bid. -- Laura Board
TheDeal.com: WPP launches hostile bid for TNS
