Nationwide’s £2.9bn takeover of Virgin Money set to complete next month

It comes after the building society agreed to the takeover of its London-listed rival in March.

Nationwide struck the takeover deal with a 220p-a-share offer for Virgin Money, including a planned 2p-per-share dividend payout.

The planned takeover will bring together Britain’s fifth and sixth largest retail lenders, creating a combined group with around 24.5 million customers, more than 25,000 staff and nearly 700 branches.

But the move is set to ultimately spell the end of the Virgin Money brand, with Nationwide planning to rebrand the Virgin Money business as Nationwide within six years, although it will keep the two brands initially.

On Friday, the lenders said that “all relevant regulatory approvals have now been received” to push forward with the deal, having been cleared by the UK’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), in July.

The deal will still need to be sanctioned in court, with a hearing due to take place on September 27.

As a result, the deal is expected to formally complete on October 1, the banks said.

Virgin Money was formerly the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank group CYBG and rebranded after a £1.6bn takeover of Sir Richard Branson’s banking group in 2018.

Virgin Money is the UK’s sixth largest retail bank, with around 6.6 million customers.

Nationwide is Britain’s biggest building society with 605 branches and 18,000 staff and claims to have the UK’s single largest network of branches.