Abbey gets electric bid for First National.

Investors Chronicle, February, 2003

Abbey National is selling its consumer finance arm, First National, for GBP848m to GE Consumer Finance, the consumer credit business of the General Electric Company. On an exit multiple of 12-13 times 2002 forecast earnings, the price achieved was better than analysts had expected.

The deal will help shore-up Abbeys capital base by releasing capital that is currently covering GBP3.9bn of risk-weighted assets. That should prove handy after Abbey was hit last year by bad debt provisions at its troubled wholesale banking unit. That revelation forced the resignation of former chief executive, Ian Harley. New boss Luqman Arnold has signalled a dividend cut with 2002s full-year results, due on 26 February.

IC VIEW

The issues for Abbey remain the...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.