Egg is for sale

by Ed Bowsher on 03 August 2010  |  0 comments
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Citigroup is putting internet bank, Egg up for sale.

The UK  banking industry is in a real state of flux at the moment. Santander is pushing to become a major player in the UK market, Metro Bank has opened its first branch while Virgin and Tesco are poised to launch current accounts for their customers.

Now Sky News is reporting that Citigroup has put Egg up for sale.  Apparently Citi wants £500m for Egg.

So who might buy?

Santander is an obvious bidder and you can't exclude Tesco and Virgin either. I reckon HSBC might enter the fray too. My understanding is that HSBC doesn't want to expand its branch network but it might be interested in picking up a chunk of online accounts in one transaction. That said, HSBC might be told to back off by the Competition Commission whereas that won't be a problem for the other contenders I've mentioned.

I suspect that a sale of Egg might be good news for consumers. A new owner would probably want to boost its new business, so I think we could see Egg products heading towards the top of the comparison tables once a deal goes through.