Richard Branson's Virgin Money is one of at least two bidders for Britain's troubled Northern Rock bank, The Telegraph reported Saturday.

Virgin Money and a consortium led by former Abbey boss, Luqman Arnold were the only two bidders to make their interest publicly known Friday as Northern Rock chief Adam Applegarth and seven other directors resigned from the bank's board.

Northern Rock Chairman Bryan Sanderson replaced them with well-known corporate troubleshooters John Devaney, chairman of Telent, and Simon Laffin, formerly Safeway's finance director. A third new director has yet to be named, the Telegraph reported.

Boston-based private equity firm Thomas H. Lee is interested in making a bid for Northern Rock while U.S. hedge fund Cerberus appeared to be backing away from a bid, the Telegraph said.

The British government has given Northern Rock until Feb. 17 to put together a plan to stabilize its banking operations.  // Copyright 2007 by United Press International



Publication date: 18 November 2007   

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