Northern Rock Share Discussion Threads

[lefrene] 24/2/2009 04:45

I doubt the one eyed ego maniac is at all concerned for mere share holders, he desperately needs a vehicle to attempt to prop up an imploding housing market. He'll fail of course at it is akin to propping up a currency. The chances are that other lenders with less than perfect clients will do all they can to pass those clients along to Northern Crock. In pursuit of bonuses and fulfilling political objectives N Crock will oblige, thus providing a get-out for the newly cautious less exciting businesses. Perhaps in a couple of years we shall see N Crock as the author of a dead cat bounce in summer 2009? A little after that perhaps an inquiry as to the misuse of 14 billion of tax payers money?

[ekuuleus] 23/2/2009 22:06

Sounds to me the extra loans from the Government to load to new customers is a wheeze to nick more of the shareholder base on refloating the co.

[bobobob5] 23/2/2009 17:26

It's entirely predictable with the one-eyed Scottish idiot, I'm afraid.

[scribbler101] 23/2/2009 17:24

So we will pay the staff bonuses for getting rid of the loan book.

And then bonuses for replacing it.

Couldn't invent it could you?

[miata] 23/2/2009 14:47

NORTHERN Rock executives and senior managers will not receive cash bonuses for 2008 and 2009, the bank said today.

The nationalised lender said the move – excluding those staff who have bonuses written into their contracts – came despite it beating targets set for the repayment of its £26.9 billion Government loan.

Senior staff salaries will also be frozen this year.

But front-line workers were paid a 10% bonus in January because the bank had paid back a "significant portion" of the money owed.

Junior managers are also set to receive a "loan note" of 10% of their salary for 2008, to be paid out at a yet-unspecified date.

The bank said the payments would affect a total of 4,400 workers – including about 400 junior managers – with an average salary of £21,000 per year.

Northern Rock said less than one hundred of its senior staff deemed "important to the company's future" would receive deferred bonuses for 2008, in the form of a loan note.

These will not be payable until 2010 and will be subject to an assessment by the firm's remuneration committee on whether they meet performance criteria.

The bank stressed that a claw-back clause would mean it could recover all of the deferred bonuses from staff if those targets were not met.

"Northern Rock will undertake a review of its approach to future remuneration to ensure that incentives are well aligned to the interests of its owners, customers and employees over the long term," the bank said.

The lender's pay policy has attracted criticism on several occasions since it was rescued by the taxpayer.

Former chief executive Adam Applegarth, who was at the helm in the period before Northern Rock collapsed, secured a controversial £760,000 when he left the company.

Chairman Ron Sandler earned £90,000 a month until last October when he reverted to a non-executive role and his salary dropped to £350,000 a year.

The current chief executive, Gary Hoffman, has a basic annual salary of £700,000, plus three separate payments of £400,000 each to compensate him for the loss of various long-term incentive programmes at former employer Barclays.

Today's announcement comes a week after Royal Bank of Scotland – which is almost 70% owned by the taxpayer – slashed its 2008 bonus pot in the wake of public outrage at reports it planned to pay a total of about £1 billion.

RBS also disclosed plans to operate a policy of deferring payouts for key workers.

A Northern Rock spokeswoman said the bank had not come under pressure from Government to change its executive pay scheme.

"The deferred bonus is a new element. We are reviewing our business plan at the moment and in the changed economic circumstances we just felt it was the right thing to do," she said.

"Clearly the Government is our shareholder and we work with them but it is a decision that the company has made."

She said Northern Rock would announce further details of the executive pay scheme next week, including how many senior staff have bonuses guaranteed in their contracts.

[onsider] 23/2/2009 14:38

The only 'Comms' I want to know about is COMMpensation, or the lack of it.

Just give us an answer, so we can move on with our lives.

[onsider] 23/2/2009 14:34

RE: topdoggyuk - 19 Feb'09 - 09:48 - 14001 of 14006

What the hell is this guy on???? Did he go through a time machine or something?

[bobobob5] 23/2/2009 10:41

The "hold" question can be asked of others too...

[ekuuleus] 23/2/2009 08:59

Seems the government is desperate to shaft the share holders.

What goes around comes around. Shafting the shareholders has cause trust to plummet in international markets.

What investors would want to put money into UK companies when the government hates investors so much it just confiscates the shares.

I suspect this one action is a large factor in UK share prices being so low and why the pound has tumbled so much.

[miata] 23/2/2009 08:06

Northern Rock has announced a £14bn expansion of its mortgage lending today in attempt to kick start the moribund housing market.

The Newcastle-based bank, which collapsed in 2007 and had to be rescued by the state, has up to now been aggressively repaying the money lent it by the government but with other attempts to stimulate bank lending overall yet to make a significant impact, that policy is being reversed.

The bank has reduced the amount outstanding on its loan from the government by two-thirds from £27bn to just £9bn in little more than a year.

Under the new expansion strategy, the bank will lend an extra £5bn this year to potential homebuyers with a further £9bn in 2010.

They will be financed with money from new deposits, repayments on existing loans and more government money. To help the bank lend, the firm is to be restructured, with new mortgages and existing mortgages managed separately, the government said today.

[scribbler101] 22/2/2009 23:56

I have not seen the detials of the NR proposals, but isn't £14bn of mortgages what they have just taken back?

The Grand old Duke of North umberland...

[frankiestheone] 22/2/2009 23:18

And now that NRK are going to give out 14bln in mortgages over the next two years i wonder if ex shareholders will be offered preferential rates

[frankiestheone] 22/2/2009 23:15

I heard preston was seen crying his eyes out and stamping his feet " It's not fair, I wanted to tell that"

[mercier et camier] 22/2/2009 22:22

Interest that Peter Mandelson is now attacking the trade union movement for predicting the demise of a well known car manufacturer. He says such speculative talk is damaging confidence in the British economy.

[topdoggyuk] 22/2/2009 16:50

bank of england to start printing money march 5th!!

[kpwuk] 20/2/2009 19:25

I doubt that ADVFN will do anything for you until you save up your pocket money and pay the subscription you sad little, self important no mark!

[ekuuleus] 20/2/2009 16:47

I wonder if I can get advfn to change the BB list so that 'new items' total only counts unfiltered.

Instead of saying 1 new, I would not have had to check the thread.

[kpwuk] 19/2/2009 20:22

My heart is broken, I've been filtered by someone who can't even afford the subscription. :o(

[frankiestheone] 19/2/2009 13:37

well it just goes to show how the bbc is run these days, preston and all the other presenters with big ego's...you know the ones, clarkson and co. they get paid so much that they think they are gods and don't have to answer to anyone.
they are worse than some of these bankers. Topdog, i have written off my investment, what will be will be and we all move on

[qantas] 19/2/2009 11:27

Brunswick to help Northern Rock rebuild its reputation

Review The bank has hired Brunswick as a 'fresh pair of eyes'
Alec Mattinson 18-Feb-09
Northern Rock is considering a complete overhaul of its strategic communications strategy, one year on from its shock national­isation.



The bank has called in City heavyweight Brunswick to lead a wide-ranging review of its comms approach as part of a wider plan to exit state ownership.

Brunswick, led by Alan Parker, is charged with taking the temperature of key stakeholders. It will quiz senior journalists, political figures and financial professionals on how they perceive Northern Rock and its core messages. This could then trigger a wide-ranging comms plan to remould the bank's reputation as it seeks to re-enter the private sector.

FD currently leads financial comms for Northern Rock, having won the account last year. It is understood the account was worth £1.5m a year at the time FD won it from ten-year incumbent Finsbury.

Northern Rock comms dir­ector Brian Giles said: 'Brunswick will be looking at specific elements of our communications strategy, but this has not affected FD as our retained consultant at this stage.'

FD pitched for the strategic comms project but lost out to Brunswick. City PR insiders speculated Parker's close links to the PM Gordon Brown and other senior government figures could have played a part in the decision.

Giles said Brunswick had been brought in as 'a fresh pair of eyes' to investigate 'the perceptions of Northern Rock and what we might need to adjust, adapt or do going forward.'

In recent weeks Northern Rock has announced a strategic review of its entire business plan and it confirmed it was examining proposals to revive its mortgage lending.

At the end of September it had paid off £15.5bn of the £26.9bn in taxpayer loans it inc­urred during nationalisation.

[topdoggyuk] 19/2/2009 09:49

LOL!! - well perhaps not - dump them all - but a word of caution

or a word off opportunity after all if it keeps flipping from 6p - 90p then its

an investment opportunity - if you get my drift

[topdoggyuk] 19/2/2009 09:48

LOL!! - well perhaps not - dump them all - but a word of caution

or a word off opportunity after all if it keeps flipping from 6p - 90p then its

an investment opportunity - if you get my drift