Shares digital

The bids for Northern Rock (NRK) are in and investors will be disturbed by the absence of Luqman Arnold’s Olivant Group, which had been seen as the shareholders preferred option. That leaves just two rescue plans for the government to choose from, one proposal comes from Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and the other from the existing management. A decision is likely to be made in the next few weeks and the final proposal will be sent to Brussels for approval.

Shares says: The suggestion from Olivant that it would not have been able to produce a return for shareholders under the conditions on offer is telling.

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by: Tom Sieber