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Factbox-Predator becomes prey: Branson's Virgin Money brand set to disappear

March 07, 2024 at 10:14 am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Virgin Money, the British challenger bank founded by entrepreneur Richard Branson, could be swallowed up by mutually-owned lender Nationwide, in a surprise 2.9 billion pound potential deal, the companies said on Thursday.

The proposed takeover, still subject to conditions, serves as a milestone for the UK banking industry, and would consign one of its best-known and fastest-growing brands to history after Nationwide said it planned to phase out the Virgin brand.

The following are key steps on Virgin Money's three-decade long journey.

Branson pushed Virgin, a mobile phones-to-flights group, into financial services in 1995. The group offered credit cards, insurance, savings and pensions in the UK, and also sold products in Australia and South Africa.

In 2007, Virgin made a play for British bank Northern Rock - once a mutually-owned building society like Nationwide - after it suffered the first run on a major UK bank for more than 140 years amid a funding crisis. The talks failed and Northern Rock was nationalised.

Virgin tried again and in 2011 the British government agreed to sell Northern Rock for close to 1 billion pounds. In October 2012, Northern Rock plc was renamed Virgin Money plc.

Virgin made a lukewarm stock market debut in 2014 with a sale that netted 140 million pounds for its billionaire backers, which included Branson and financier Wilbur Ross.

In a bid to scale up and compete with bigger rivals, in 2018 Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking Group bought Virgin in a 1.7 billion pound all-share takeover. CYBG rebranded the combined bank as Virgin Money - management hoped the association with Branson's brand would help fuel growth.

Branding arrangements between Branson's Virgin group and the bank were considered a stumbling block to any acquisition, but one that was seemingly overcome this week after Nationwide said it would phase out the brand over 6 years.

Virgin said in 2021 it would shut one in five branches as customers shifted online. The bank had promoted its branches as "community-focused spaces" to "brighten ... lives".

Before Nationwide's bid was announced on Thursday, Virgin Money's share price had fallen about 10% since early 2016 - valuing the bank at about 2 billion pounds at Wednesday's close - and was 57% lower than 2018's peak share price.

(Reporting By Sinead Cruise and Tommy Reggiori wilkes; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

Stocks mentioned in the article

	Add to a list Add to a list 0 selected To use this feature you must be a member Log in Sign up	Price	Change	5d. change	Capi.
	VIRGIN MONEY UK PLC	214.2 GBX	-0.37%	0.00%	3.46B

Richard Branson

Telephony, music, finances, trains, airplanes or space exploration, the Virgin boss dares everything. A real bulimia which finds its roots in the aversion he has for the monopolies.

At sixteen, Branson creates the newspaper Students with the help of his friend Jonathan Holland Gems. Thanks to them, this newspaper becomes the mouthpiece for a generation of hippies opposed to the Vietnam War and engaged in the struggle for abortion rights.

At twenty, Richard Branson sold records by mail. Three years later he produced "Tubullar Bells" by Mike Oldfield which will be selected for the soundtrack of the movie The Exorcist. This enormous success attracts the best artists of the moment at Virgin Records as the Sex Pistols, Culture Club or Phil Collins.

Unformatted by business schools, the British businessman uses his intuition to engage in business more and more daring. Virgin Airways, Virgin Mobile to mention only the most important, show that there are no forbidden areas for the businessman the most admired of his generation. Icon in intuitive management, Richard Branson does not forget to be surrounded by the best persons in finance world as Gordon McCallum, a reference in the business world or Stephen Murphy, his Chief Financial officer and former of Unilever.

Some adventures such as cosmetics, clothing or vodka are failures but not for the businessman. When any other contractors consider these adventures as a failure, Richard Branson believes that these under achievements humanize the company and accentuate the friendly image of the boss.

Very sensitive to environmental issues, Richard Branson is hired to fight against global warming. In 2007 he gave twenty-five million dollars to reward initiatives that will be able to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But his most ambitious project is the conquest of space. For this, he signed a contract of fifteen million pounds with an American company for the manufacture of spacecraft and partnered with Philippe Starck for VirginGalactic. The first Virgin flight in space was planned for 2009.
In fact, like Google, Richard Branson has endorsed the principle of "don’t be a evil" (do not hurt) fighting to humanely manage a business became enormous.

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Virgin Radio Ltd. Virgin Radio Ltd. Specialty TelecommunicationsCommunications Virgin Radio Ltd. operates as a radio station. It operates as pop and rock radio station, which provides live online latest news and music. The firm also engages in the sale of advertising time and the related operations for radio stations. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in London, UK	Founder
Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. AirlinesTransportation Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. engages in the provision of air transportation services. It operates long haul services to various destinations including Las Vegas, Sydney, Tokyo, Delhi, Miami, and Shanghai. The company was founded by Richard Charles Nicholas Branson in 1984 and is headquartered in Crawley, the United Kingdom.	Founder

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