Yorkshire Bank in talks over sale to new venture

Lord Levene’s new vehicle NBNK Investments is in talks to buy both Yorkshire Bank and its sister Clydesdale as a precursor to acquiring the 632 Lloyds branches that have been put up for sale.

While talks are on-going there is no certainty the two sides will agree to a sale.

Yorkshire and Clydesdale, which are owned by National Australia Bank, have long been subject to speculation that their Australian parent will sell its UK assets once the British economy picks up.

Yorkshire Bank declined to comment on the speculation, but referred to comments made by NAB group chief executive Cameron Clyne earlier this year.

He said: “Our number one priority is, and has always been, to grow the business organically, but in this climate it is also only natural that we would look at other options available to us.

“This would however, be against strict financial criteria with our key focus to generate value for our shareholders.”

An NBNK spokesman said: “It’s just market speculation. We never comment on that.”

Lloyds has to sell 632 branches in order to get the EU’s seal of approval for its takeover of Halifax Bank of Scotland in 2009 at the height of the banking crisis.

If NBNK were to buy NAB’s UK operations and the Lloyds branches it would have nearly 1,000 branches, making it one of the UK’s largest banks. NAB has 187 Yorkshire Bank branches and 152 Clydesdales.

The three bidders in the running for the Lloyds branches are NBNK, The Co-Operative Group’s banking arm and Sun Capital Partners.