20th Apr 2016 12:05
LONDON (Alliance News) - Metro Bank PLC, the UK's first new high-street bank in more than a century, on Wednesday said it's moving towards profitability, after reporting that losses narrowed in the first quarter of 2016.
Having raised GBP400 million in an initial public offering on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange in March, Metro Bank said it made a GBP7.9 million loss after tax on an underlying basis excluding listing costs in the three months ended March 31, narrowing from the GBP8.5 million loss the corresponding quarter a year earlier.
Net lending more than doubled to GBP4.1 billion, driven by residential mortgages and commercial loans, while total deposits rose by 75% to GBP5.9 billion thanks to attracting new business and retail customers. Metro Bank's main area of operation is London and the surrounding commuter towns.
"We continue to create a banking revolution by building Metro Bank into a major banking force in the UK," Vernon Hill, chairman and founder, said in a statement.
Shares in Metro Bank were up 0.9% at 2,025.00p on Wednesday afternoon, having been sold to investors at 2,000p in the March IPO.
Metro Bank's IPO, which gave the lender a market value of GBP1.60 billion, made it the biggest company by market value to float in London so far in 2016, marginally ahead of CYBG PLC, the owner of the Clydesdale and Yorkshire retail banking brands in the UK, which was valued at GBP1.58 billion in its February IPO.
With a preference for calling its branches stores, Metro Bank began with one in Holborn, central London, in 2010 and earlier this month opened number 41 just last week on King?s Road in Chelsea. Whereas Metro Bank's stores are scattered across London and areas surrounding the capital city, CYBG's core regions are Scotland, North East England, North West England, Yorkshire and the Humber.
CYBG is due to report first-half results on May 24.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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