Metro Bank, the U.K. challenger bank seeking to fix a shortfall on its balance sheet, said it expects to raise about 350£ ($464 million) through selling shares.
The London-based bank has hired RBC Capital Markets, Jefferies and KBW to help sell the shares in a transaction expected to take place in the first half of this year after "consultation with shareholders," according to a statement in late trading Tuesday. Metro Bank has a market value of about 1.5 billion pounds.
The lender also said it would post a strategy update, its 2019 capital plans and its 2018 preliminary results and hold a conference call later Tuesday. Metro Bank's shares have slumped this year after it said it mistakenly applied a too-low risk weighting to some of its mortgages and would need to put more capital behind existing positions. Bloomberg reported the planned sale earlier Tuesday.
Metro was part of a generation of challenger banks that sprung up in Britain after the financial crisis, taking on the nation's four big established lenders.
Led by Chairman Vernon Hill, the bank advertises longer opening times and branches that are friendly to dogs, even providing water bowls. Its shares performed strongly after its 2016 initial public offering, doubling by March of last year, before tumbling as loan growth slowed.
