Metro Bank shares rise for second day after board avoids shareholder rebellion
Metro Bank shares continued to climb this morning two days after its board survived a shareholder protest at its annual general meeting.
Read more: Metro Bank shares continue recovery after board avoids shake-up
The challenger bank’s share price rose 7.4 per cent in early morning trading after a 15.2 per cent leap yesterday following the AGM.
Chairman Vernon Hill saw 12 per cent of investors vote against his re-election while two directors of risk – Stuart Bernau and Eugene Lockhart – suffered a 28 per cent rebellion after the bank’s major loans blunder earlier this year.
Shares kept climbing this morning as the bank recovered its poise, though, with the share price at 873.5p from yesterday’s close of 813p.
Metro Bank’s stock fell as low as 475p recently before it carried off a successful £375m capital raise last week that sent shares higher.
Shares have still dropped 60 per cent since its admission in January that a massive accounting error resulted in £900m of commercial loans being incorrectly classified, when they should have counted as some of the bank’s risk-weighted assets.
Regulators are still investigating the bank over the misclassification, which saw chief executive Craig Donaldson offer to resign before the board asked him to continue in his role.
Chairman Hill was under pressure from advisory firms Pirc and Glass Lewis after payments Metro Bank had made to his wife’s architecture firm, Interarch.
But Metro Bank soothed investors’ ire at the AGM earlier this week by vowing to end its relationship with the company by the end of 2020.
Metro’s latest results showed that profits halved in the aftermath of the loans blunder, while the £375m rights issue diluted the value of its shares.
It has admitted losing some of its largest customers as a result of “adverse sentiment” following the loans error.
Metro also suffered as a result of recent incorrect Whatsapp rumours that claimed the bank was set to close, prompting customers to panic and withdraw their savings.
Read more: Disgruntled Metro Bank shareholders revolt over loans blunder
Pictures emerged on Twitter of customers rushing into one west London branch to queue to empty their safety deposit boxes despite Metro’s attempts to reassure them.