Nationwide acquires Virgin Money for £2.9bn

Nationwide Building Society has agreed to acquire Virgin Money in a deal that values ​​its high street rival at nearly £3bn and will create the UK’s second-largest mortgage and savings provider.

The two banks have reached preliminary agreement on key terms of a deal that would create a new rival with total assets of £366bn, according to a joint statement released on Thursday morning.

The proposed £2.9bn deal offers Virgin Money shareholders a price of 220p per share, a 38% premium to the bank’s share price on Wednesday.

The deal comes just five years after the company’s last merger, when Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking Group acquired Virgin Money for £1.7bn in 2018.

In a statement, Nationwide said it believed the potential acquisition would “enable Nationwide to accelerate its strategy more quickly than it could achieve organically and broaden and deepen its products and services, while providing returns that will further support Nationwide’s financial strength,” and bring greater value to customers.” its customers and members”.

Stay tuned for more details…