Shares in Metro Bank have jumped by more than a 10th as investors welcome reports that the high street lender had attracted a takeover approach from a possible buyer.
The London-listed bank was approached by investment firm Pollen Street Capital about potentially taking it private, Sky News first reported over the weekend.
The discussions are said to be in the early stages and there can be no certainty of any deal.
This would mark a turning point for the lender which secured a multimillion-pound rescue deal in 2023 and returned to profitability last year.
Shortly after markets opened on Monday, Metro shares were soaring by about 13%.
Metro Bank declined to comment on the takeover reports.
The bank has emerged from a tumultuous period where it suffered sharp drops in its share price, before receiving a funding package worth £925 million to help secure its future on Britain’s high streets.
Colombian billionaire Jaime Gilinski Bacal became a majority shareholder in the group after contributing through his firm Spaldy Investments.
The lender has made heavy cuts to its cost base, including reducing its workforce by about 30%. It now has about 3,000 employees nationwide.
It also scrapped its seven-day-a-week opening hours across its branches – once a central feature of the banking group – which, in 2010, was the first high street bank to launch in the UK in more than 100 years.
Metro runs 75 stores in the UK and is opening new branches in Chester and Gateshead in the summer.
