Virgin money I recall offered close to double that when Labour were in power.

It is a good deal right now but is now the time to do the deal?

We are getting back less than we paid and it doesn't include the part with the worst risk.
It's pretty obvious unless you are a blind eyed Tory boy (Oh wait).

Quote ="Gideon" "Some may say that selling a fragile bank at a loss in the midst of a potentially catastrophic debt crisis and with a second credit crunch looming on the horizon is not necessarily a spiffing idea. "And I would say 'I have absolutely no idea what any of that means'."'" Satire gets it right again: www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/busi ... ne-to-use-£747m-from-northern-rock-sale-to-bail-out-new-owners-201111174558

Quote ="Gideon" "Some may say that selling a fragile bank at a loss in the midst of a potentially catastrophic debt crisis and with a second credit crunch looming on the horizon is not necessarily a spiffing idea. "And I would say 'I have absolutely no idea what any of that means'."'" Satire gets it right again: www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/busi ... ne-to-use-£747m-from-northern-rock-sale-to-bail-out-new-owners-201111174558

Of course, as eni fule (ie Robinson) kno, it's just ignorant lefties with an axe to grind against "Toooooorreeehs" who can't see this as A Good Deal.



oh …

is there any banking business that is worth the same now as it was worth a few years ago?

Probably not, which makes it a ridiculous time to sell when the price you can get is going to be so low.

The immediate future looks bad for banks, so you could argue it's a good, albeit desperate, time to sell.

The banks themselves don't have much confidence - announced job lossses - Llotds 14,000, Bank of America 30,000, HSBC 30,000, etc, etc

The good time to sell is one where you're going to get the best price.

Under no set of criteria is this the right time to be selling off a bank, unless you desperately need the cash to meet some economic forecasts.

Well cash IS desparately needed and getting a better price could take more than a decade.

Quote ="tb"Satire gets it right again: www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/busi ... ne-to-use-£747m-from-northern-rock-sale-to-bail-out-new-owners-201111174558'" "Julian Cook, chief economist at Donnelly McPartlin said: "I know that having George Osborne in charge of the money makes for great conversation, but eventually we are going to have to take this seriously."

Quote ="tb"Satire gets it right again: www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/busi ... ne-to-use-£747m-from-northern-rock-sale-to-bail-out-new-owners-201111174558'" "Julian Cook, chief economist at Donnelly McPartlin said: "I know that having George Osborne in charge of the money makes for great conversation, but eventually we are going to have to take this seriously."

Mmm a flogging off gold reserves type situation.

So then why sell now?
Poop has hit the fan perhaps?

An equally potty idea and I said so at the time.

Or flogging Britoil.

What did those Norwegians think they were doing, holding on to Statoil? After all, all the dopey buggers have done with it is used it to fund the Norwegian pension fund. They could've flogged it off too and let their mates pis the proceeds against the wall

Do not forget this is the "good" part of the bank with all the toxic debt removed. That is why Virgin Money have bought it.

Virgin Money intend to float the bank on the stock market within two to five years. When they do they will expect to make money on that transaction meaning they will and the taxpayer won't.

If Virgin are going to do that this confirms that our idiot of a Chancellor could have held onto the bank and done the same thing and the sale would then be for our benefit as tax payers not Virgin Money's.

He has clearly sold the taxpayer short so he can try and meet his politically inspired target of deficit reduction before 2015 (which looks ever more unlikely by the day) so this is a prime example of short term idiot thinking that not only sells the taxpayer short now but hands a profit to Virgin Money in a few years we the taxpayer should have got.

Virgin have bought this to sell it so they clearly think money is to be made on the deal. Money Osborne has ensured will go to a company rather than into the public coffers.

I was going to say this shows his incompetence but in actual fact it is typically Tory letting his City mates make a profit at the ordinary persons expense.

This may not be the best time to sell, but it will not be possible to sell all of the nationalised banks at the optimum time. The amounts involved are so big, dwarfing the total of all previous privatisations, that the sales will have to be staggered over many years. The biggest tranches do need to be sold at a better time, but the smaller banks will be sold when market conditions are not necessarily ideal. If NR isnt sold now it almost certainly will not be sold in a couple of years time if conditions are better, because that's when tranches of RBS or Lloyds will be sold.

I have no idea whether Virgin are paying the right place, but the mere fact that NR is being sold at a loss is largely irrelevant, its spilt milk. The issue is whether Virgin or anyone else would be willing to pay more.

you are assuming that the UK Government would add the same amount of value to the bank as Virgin Money will do over the next few years. Doe the UK Government not have better things to be doing than running a retail bank anyway...?

Abso-bloomin-lutley.
Well said.

But what if you need the money? The government does, because the last government p155ed everything up the wall.

Not that one again

Mate, covering your eyes and pretending something you don't like is not there only works when you're a baby.

Check again.
Compare against the debt left by the government before that, the blue one.

Would that be a baby who can't read or understand figures from before the financial crash and figures from the government before May 1997?

Or one who is so blinded by ideology that they keep hoping that if they just keep claiming that black is white and visa versa it'll be so?

[url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7a955536-1215-11e1-8ab1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1eA4nZYDLOh aye, a really good deal[/url (registration required)

Our beloved Gideon must have just 'Forgotten' to mention that when he said what a great deal it was.