B & B shares - would you buy now?

Masomnia

Mm it was a bit of an anti-climax after how they began. Still, it's an 11% rise, not too shabby!

sabretoothtigger

Would have been better to buy barclays and watch them rise, they didnt fall back much either.

Andrew64

B&B shares are a very speculative "investment". See this article:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/article.html?in_article_id=452382&in_page_id=3

I think one of 3 things will happen to B&B:

a. Allowed to go bust. Customers refunded, shareholders get nothing.
b. Government takeover like NR - shareholders get nothing.
c. Takeover by another bank, Then the shareholders get whatever the other bank values it at, which may not be much!

SouthCoast

Takeover by another bank

I think that bankers want to get rid of toxic debt, not buy it!

bristolleedsfan

SouthCoast wrote: »

I think that bankers want to get rid of toxic debt, not buy it!

Nationalisation or another organisation being arm twisted to take B+B over FOC are the only likelyhoods that I now envisage.

Andrew64

The FSA is trying to find a buyer for B&B:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/09/21/cnbradford121.xml

Stavros_3

Quote Telegraph
"Despite that, B&B's new chief executive, Richard Pym, who previously ran A&L, is open to finding a buyer. Last week, Moody's, the credit rating agency, downgraded B&B debt to one notch above junk status"

Crikey !!!!

Andrew64

Exactly! Who would want to buy shares in a company rated at or near 'junk'?

ad44downey

Andrew64 wrote: »

Exactly! Who would want to buy shares in a company rated at or near 'junk'?

There were plenty of posters on here who said they were buying them not so long ago.........

Andrew64

And here's another reason why B&B shares are a gamble:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/article.html?in_article_id=452382&in_page_id=3

"HBOS may have been in danger of imploding last weekend, but has been pulled back to rude health by news of the Lloyds deal, which has also helped to bolster the stability of the UK banking industry as a whole. But one exception was Bradford & Bingley, it has seen the credit default swap (CDS) rate on the bank, which can be used to measure bank risk, increase from 490 to 683 basis points over the past week."

"'But the case of Bradford & Bingley is spooky. The writing is on the wall there. It looks as if it's on the brink of collapse and may need a bailout as well.'"