Aldermore Bank has reportedly set its sights on buying out the Co-operative Bank.
A news report from Sky News said the lender has appointed financial services firm BNP Paribas to table an offer for the Co-op Bank.
The Co-op Bank has reportedly been seeking a buyer since April this year, and Aldermore is said to be up against Shawbrook, Paragon Banking Group and OSB in a bid to acquire the lender.
Last month, Sky News revealed that Shawbrook was seeking a merger deal with Co-op Bank in an agreement worth £3.5m. Shawbrook has recently expanded its profile following the buyout of specialist lender Bluestone Mortgages.
Shawbrook declined to comment on this offer.
According to Reuters, Co-op Bank has given a deadline of October for potential buyers to make a bid.
Its most recent results for the first half of 2023 showed that the Co-op Bank had completed £1.52bn in new mortgage completions and delivered a profit before tax of £61.8m. Its performance was relatively flat on the same period in 2022.
Last month, it agreed to purchase Sainsbury’s Bank’s mortgage portfolio comprising 3,500 customers with balances of around £479m.
Both the Co-op Bank and Aldermore declined to comment when approached by Mortgage Solutions.
Shekina is the deputy editor at Mortgage Solutions and commercial editor at Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions. She has nearly eight years of experience in the B2B publishing market, having previously covered the hospitality, retail, pet, accounting and jewellery sectors.
Shekina has worked for Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions for almost five years. Here, she covers the market’s breaking news stories, engages with professionals in the sector, and oversees any commercially agreed content in partnership with mortgage-related companies.
This includes presenting webinars and hosting roundtable discussions on developing themes in the mortgage sector.
She is an NCTJ-trained journalist and was nominated for the Headline Money Awards Mortgage Journalist of the Year in 2021.
In her spare time, Shekina likes to read, travel, listen to music and socialise with friends.
She currently reports on current events in the mortgage market and liaises with financial clients to produce sponsored content.
Follow her on Twitter at @ShekinaMS
