The rumor mill keeps on grinding. London's Daily Telegraph is
reporting
that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is getting together a luncheon club to share
out the tastiest morsels of British banking group HBOS plc. J.P. Morgan
itself is seen more as an adviser and lender than as a buyer of any
major part of HBOS. But the Telegraph says a large Australian bank,
"thought to be" National Australia Bank Ltd., is "understood" to have
been spoken to, as have unnamed private equity groups. Banco Santander
SA could also be approached, the Telegraph adds for
good measure, citing sources.
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HBOS is Britain's biggest mortgage lender, among other things. That might make it a bit of a mouthful for Santander, given that it has just
agreed to buy another mortgage bank, Alliance & Leicester plc, to add to its existing U.K. mortgage business, Abbey National Ltd. Wouldn't the competition authorities have something to say about that?
Meanwhile, down under, NAB has just issued a profit warning and might not be in the best position to buy a foreign bank. But HBOS' shares are doing fine, thank you -- and are still well above the 275 pence offer price for the new share issue it carried out last week. Only 8% of existing shareholders
took up their rights in the issue, leaving the underwriters, Dresdner Kleinwort Ltd. and Morgan Stanley & Co., to cough up for a huge slab of the £4 billion ($8 billion) that poured into HBOS' coffers. Cynics might say the rumors are good for the underwriters' chances of offloading some of that unwanted paper quickly -- before the price falls again. -
Jonathan Braude
See
Telegraph itemSee Dealscape:
Santander in $2.5B deal for Alliance & LeicesterSee related:
HBOS rights issue spurned
