MBNA Sale Off

roxybing

Just seen reports that the sale of mbna is off anybody in Leitrim here this.


Wall Street Journal

Bank of America Pulls Sale Of UK Credit-Card Business - Source

By Jessica Hodgson
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

LONDON (Dow Jones)--The sale of MBNA Europe, Bank of America Corp.'s (BAC) U.K. and Ireland credit-card business, has been abandoned, a person familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires Monday.
A spokesman for Bank of America declined to comment Monday. Representatives for MBNA Europe didn't return calls seeking comment.
It is unclear why the sale has been abandoned, although one report said new capital requirements by European regulators had made the credit-card business less attractive to potential acquirers.
MBNA Europe comprises businesses both in the U.K. and Ireland, and operates a joint venture with Virgin Money, the financial-services arm of Richard Branson's Virgin business empire. Virgin-branded credit cards account for roughly 35% of the total loan book. Bank of America launched a sale process last year for the European businesses.
Virgin Money, Banco Santander SA (STD, SAN.MC), credit-card giant Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), in conjunction with Apollo Management LP, were all looking at the business, a person familiar with the process told Dow Jones earlier. These participants were all expected to submit second round bids before a pre-Christmas deadline.
The value attributed to the MBNA Europe cards portfolio is roughly GBP1 billion, although it isn't clear how many formal bids were ever received for the business or at what level they came in.

HOS 1997

It's all speculation at this stage. Similar to reports only a few weeks ago that said the sale was nearly completed to Virgin.

I'll await an official statement from Bank of America/MBNA.