Yorkshire Building Society to buy Egg units from Citi

The sale of Egg’s mortgage and savings operations to the Yorkshire Building Society comes four months after its US owner, Citi, offloaded the brand’s credit card business to Barclays.

Yorkshire will acquire the Egg name but will not take on the company’s 600-strong workforce, which is largely based in Derby.

An unspecified number of staff will be retained by Citi under an outsourcing agreement with Yorkshire until the end of 2012.

Once the deal completes later this year, existing Egg customers will become members of Yorkshire.

Egg was set up by Prudential in 1998. Current owner Citi acquired the business from Prudential for £575 million in 2007 before the credit crunch and recession meant it required a US government bail-out.

Egg’s remaining operations comprise a £2.5 billion savings book and £430 million of residential mortgages.

Yorkshire said the savings book will enhance its funding position and capacity to lend, while boosting its product range.

No price for the acquisition was disclosed.