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Article: The Northern Rock auction: what a fiasco
- Article from:
- The Independent on Sunday (London, England)
- Article date:
- November 18, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2007 The Independent on Sunday. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Sorry, but just who is running the auction for Northern Rock? Is
it the beleaguered bank's board? Is it their coterie of advisers -
Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Blackstone? Or is it Goldman Sachs, the
adviser to HM Treasury? It might even be the FSA, the City watchdog.
The trouble is, no one seems really to know.
Certainly not the bidders to buy Northern Rock, which include
some American private equity groups and Virgin, headed by the ever-
opportunistic Sir Richard Branson. One bidder told me yesterday that
they are submitting their expression of interest to every single
bank involved. The situation is not helped by the fact that Northern
Rock's three advisers by all accounts hardly share ...