Two of Scotland’s most prominent bankers are to appeal to HBOS shareholders to preserve the bank’s independence as officials warned HBOS could be in effect nationalised if its takeover by Lloyds TSB fell through. Sir Peter Burt and Sir George Mathewson, former chief executives of Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland respectively, plan to meet key HBOS investors to discuss their proposal to remove the bank’s current management. They will also launch a website to appeal to the bank’s 2m small shareholders. On Sunday, Sir Peter said the board of directors, which rejected their proposal on Saturday, had no credibility. But  bankers and officials warned that an independent HBOS would need more capital than the £11.5bn it is receiving from the government. Lloyds TSB said Sir Peter and Sir George’s comments were “irresponsible and lack credibility”. Read Sir Peter and Sir George’s full letter to the HBOS chairman at FT Alphaville, or if you can’t be bothered, what you need to know is that the two want to be appointed chairman and CEO respectively of a standalone, recapitalised HBOS, says FT Alphaville’s Neil Hume.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 5:28 and is filed under M&A, People. Tagged with hbos, lloyds tsb. Edit this entry.