Landsbanki, the Icelandic bank, has emerged as a frontrunner in the race to acquire Bridgewell, the UK mid-market stockbroker. Jim Renwick, chief executive, and Darren Ellis, chief operations officer, on Monday flew to Iceland to meet their potential Icelandic suitors, according to sources familiar with the matter. The broker announced last month it was considering bid approaches after recording a sharp fall in underlying profits from £3.4m to £1m. It is understood the short list of bidders will be cut this week from 12 to two or three. Other – mainly non-UK – prospective bidders are thought to include Toronto-based Canaccord Capital and Rabobank, the Dutch co-operative. NM Rothschild is running Bridgewell’s sale.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 at 5:28 and is filed under Capital markets, M&A. Tagged with bridgewell, landsbanki, nm rothschild. Edit this entry.