Atom Bank has appointed advisers to steer it through a period of financial negotiation which could lead to its takeover by BBVA, one of Spain’s largest banks, according to sources at Sky News.
A Sky News report confirms Atom Bank is in talks to appoint Citi to advise its board on options for the business.
Atom Bank said it doesn’t comment on ‘rumours or speculation.’
The appointment, which is expected to be confirmed shortly, comes almost 12 months after Atom Bank raised £149m from investors in March last year led by BBVA, Spain’s second-biggest lender.
Under the shareholder agreement, BBVA, which owns nearly 40% of the Durham-based digital bank, has an option to acquire the remainder of the shares.
The Sky story stated sources close to Atom denied that hiring Citi represented a “sale mandate” although they conceded that either a takeover, further equity fundraising or stock market listing was likely during 2019.
Atom Bank hit £2bn in residential mortgage lending in December last year.
Atom Bank also rebranded its consumer mortgage lending arm last year to Atom Mortgages after a legal dispute was resolved with All Types of Mortgages (AToM).
Maria Harris (pictured) said: “We retain a great relationship with Vic and Dale [Jannels] and wish them continued success with their new brand.”
The packager has been operating under its own new brand ‘impact specialist finance’ from the start of 2019.
Victoria Hartley is contributing editor at Mortgage Solutions, Specialist Lending Solutions, Your Money and Your Mortgage at London-based publishing company AE3 Media.
She has an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths after gaining a 2:1 in a Comparative American Studies BA at Warwick University. She also holds a TEFL qualification and taught overseas in Mexico and Japan from 1994 to 1997.
Her role includes editorial oversight of the news, analysis and features, event content management and strategic and editorial consultancy for the AE3 Media group. She is an experienced video, broadcast and live-event host and regularly chairs web and podcast debates and interviews.
Multiple award nominations have resulted in two wins: Santander Media Awards, trade journalist of the year and Headlinemoney Awards, mortgage journalist of the year (B2B). Here is one of the award-winning pieces: https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2011/07/21/exclusive-tale-bailey-fraud-witness/
Previous roles include editorships of Mortgage Solutions, consumer title What Mortgage and trade title Credit Today as well as a stint freelancing for a variety of outlets including The Guardian and Which? Money.
