The Treasury has told its investment banking advisers to examine the feasibility of selling Northern Rock, the nationalised lender, back to the City in the autumn, The Times has learnt.
A number of senior banking sources said that the Treasury was trying to ascertain whether it should float the state-controlled lender on the stock market, sell the bank to another financial group or remutualise it. The Treasury's existing external advisers are already considering a range of options to discover which method would lock in the biggest return for the taxpayer on the disposal of the bailed-out bank. The Government is eager to sell Northern Rock to the private sector at a profit to prove to voters that Gordon Brown has overcome the financial crisis that brought the British ba...
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