Virgin favourite to take over Northern Rock - report
13-02-2008
The Treasury favours a Virgin-led consortium to take control of Northern Rock, but nationalisation is still an option, according to the BBC.
The report quoted a banker close to the negotiations as its source, who said the Treasury believes Virgin's proposal to be superior to that of Northern Rock's management, which is also in the running to take over the crisis-hit bank.
But the Treasury also wants Virgin to offer more for Northern Rock, with a bigger stake for the taxpayer, before agreeing to the sale, the report said.
Nationalisation is a possibility if the government cannot find a suitable buyer, the BBC added, and it is increasingly being seen as a real option by the prime minister, Gordon Brown.
The Treasury has made no comment on the claims.
Shares in the bank dropped 6.18 per cent on the rumours to £98.50.
Northern Rock was forced to take out emergency loans from the Bank of England in September 2007 after turbulence in the financial markets, triggering the first run on a British bank in more than a century.
Digg 
Delicious 
Reddit 
StumbleUpon 
Google 
Technorati 
Netvouz