OneSavings Bank to raise £41m in IPO

A flurry of stock market flotations of high street banks was kickstarted on Wednesday when OneSavings Bank, which owns the former Kent Reliance building society, announced plans to sell shares to outside investors to raise £41m.

Some £50m was injected into Kent Reliance four years ago through the private equity firm JC Flowers, creating OneSavings Bank. It also trades under the brands Interbay, Prestige and Heritable in the UK and under the Jersey Home Loans and Guernsey Home Loans brands in the Channel Islands.

It has 142,000 savings customers and focuses on specialist areas of the mortgage market and buy-to-let.

Andy Golding, chief executive of OneSavings, said: "A stock exchange listing is the next natural step in the evolution of the business, providing us with access to the capital markets to enable us to invest for future growth."

It announced its intention to float ahead of TSB, which Lloyds Banking Group intends to float next month after being ordered to divest 631 branches by the EU when it was bailed out by UK taxpayers in 2008. Royal Bank of Scotland is also selling off branches under the Williams & Glyns brand, while there are suggestions that smaller banks such as Shawbrook could also join the market.

Co-operative Bank has delayed the stock market flotation that was part of its £1.5bn rescue fundraising last year while it taps its investors for another £400m.