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Clydesdale Bank´s flotation delayed by 24 hours

NAB shareholders will receive one share in Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking Group – worth roughly A$3.69 (180 pence at an exchange rate of 48.79 pence per Australian dollar) – for every 4 NAB shares they own.

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The final offer price announced on Wednesday is STG1.80 ($3.68) per share, which was toward the lower end of the initially stated range of STG1.75 to STG2.35.

Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank has pushed back its stock market listing by 24 hours as it answers urgent questions from a credit ratings agency.

The initial public offering (IPO) is expected to proceed, with the IPO multiple times covered at 180 pence per CYBG share from worldwide and Australian investors including NAB institutional shareholders.

Clydesdale, whose shares were priced at 180 pence on Monday, had received a request from an unnamed rating agency that could result in a downgrade of the bank’s deposit rating, NAB said. Shares in CYBG are expected to start trading on the London Stock Exchange at 8am.

The deposit rating is utilised by certain secured funding programmes, which represent 13 per cent of CYBGs total funding.

However, CYBG does not anticipate any such downgrade to have any material impact on its ability to raise funding. If that happens, the bank would need to reassess its relations with existing secured funding programs.

The request could ultimately lead to “a near-term downgrade of the short- and/or long-term deposit rating or the placing of such rating on credit watch with negative implications”, NAB said in a statement.

“The court’s approval today is the final significant step in the separation of NAB and CYBG into two independent corporate groups”.

Investors will have another day to consider a revised IPO prospectus.

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But CYBG’s Mr Duffy believes the group has the potential to win market share from the UK’s high street giants.

Pedestrians pass by offices of the National Australia Bank in Sydney