The Australian parent of Clydesdale bank has confirmed plans to float the high street lender on the London Stock Exchange before the end of the year as it quits the UK market.
The National Australia Bank (NAB) said it will sell between 20 and 30 per cent of Clydesdale to institutional investors while the rest will be held by shareholders of the NAB.
The public listing of Clydesdale, which also includes Yorkshire Bank, has been on the cards since last October.
It comes after NAB has seen its UK business rack up hefty losses after property loans turned sour.
NAB says it intends to complete the break-up by the end of this year.
Shares are to be listed on the London Stock Exchange and traded also on an Australian market.
“This is a substantial and complex undertaking, subject to risk and addressing a number of issues, of which the most substantive is conduct mitigation,” the bank stated.
NAB has been told by the British regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, that it has to provide up to £1.7bn in cover against the potential costs of misconduct and mis-selling.
The bank says there remain “significant risks and uncertainties” around conduct.
It recently faced a £21m fine for failing to handle mis-selling claims properly. One team tried to tamper with customers’ records in an effort to reduce pay-outs, and then used those records to mislead the financial services ombudsman.
The announcement came with NAB’s half-year results. Clydesdale Bank reported a 33 per cent improvement in pre-tax cash earnings to £118m. Gross lending increased by five per cent to £28bn and mortgage lending was up 15 per cent.
Debbie Crosbie, the acting chief executive of Clydesdale, said the demerger announcement “marks the beginning of an exciting new opportunity for Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks.”
“Our performance is improving and we’re providing real customer choice in the UK, which is driving encouraging growth across our target retail and SME [small and medium-sized enterprise] markets,” she said.
“We believe the foundations of a strong standalone future have been laid in the progress made restructuring and refocusing our business, and this is clear in our half-year results.”
The Clydesdale Bank was founded in Glasgow in 1838. It has been owned by NAB since 1987, having previously been owned by Midland Bank.
Yorkshire Bank was founded in 1859.