Fresh fear for Co-op Bank over advisers

RENEWED fears have been raised over the future of the Co-operative Bank after reports suggested it is to find a new set of City advisers to negotiate a restructuring deal.

The bank, which has four million customers in the UK, has been up for sale since February, four years after it almost collapsed following the discovery of a £1.5 billion black hole in its finances

Sky News reported it is to hire investment bankers to come to agreement with US hedge funds, which hold big equity stakes in the lender as well as large chunks of its debt.

Co-op owns just 20 per cent of the bank after an earlier debt for equity swap.

The newly appointed firm is expected to work alongside Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS, the investment banks which are overseeing efforts to sell the Co-op Bank as a whole.

Virgin Money is said to be interested, although experts suggest it will not offer to take over the entire company raising fears it will be broken up.

Earlier this month, the Co-op Group wrote off the remaining value of its 20 per cent shareholding in the Co-op Bank.

It took a £140 million hit which took it into an annual loss.

The Co-op bank statement previously said it had received “a number of non-binding proposals” relating to its future.

It added it continued to hold talks with “existing and other potential new investors on options to build capital”.

The Bank of England has engaged Deutsche Bank to advise the Co-op Bank, but it has huge pension liabilities. A PAINTING by Peter Doig is set to fetch in excess of a record $25 million (£19.5m) for the artist at auction in New York next month.

Rosedale depicts a Toronto house through trees and snow, and was painted by Edinburgh-born Doig in 1991. It is the top lot at auctioneers’ Phillips evening sale of 20th Century and contemporary art on May 18.

It was painted at a key time in Doig’s life when his work referenced everything from Gerhard Richter, Jackson Pollock, Pierre Bonnard and Munch to record covers, vintage postcards, and Doig’s own archive of photographs and memories of his early experiences in Canada.

Jean-Paul Engelen, the auction’s co-organiser said: “This is the most impressive work by the artist to be offered at auction in recent years.” Picture: Dominic Lipinski