UK 23:41 Sunday, 27 September 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
Now that you have come back from your cup of tea, after part 1, this long expose into the downfall of Metro Bank (MTRO) continues
You will read in the newspapers that the business model of Metro Bank (MTRO) is flawed, how high-street branches make no sense, or how valiant behind-the-scenes preparation by regulators led to its salvation over the last week or so. As we write, we can hear the bells ringing and Hallelujah choruses breaking out across the nation….
If I had had surgery when I was a kid to help me be what I wanted to be and thought I was, I would today have only one leg and one eye. I would not be a proper pirate but I could at least identify as Long John Silver. These days some folks think kids should have whatever they want to help them be what they want. If they want to “transition” so they can change gender it is fine to pump them with chemicals and start snipping here and there. So what if 25% of folks who do transition regret it and what to change back, lets pump the teenagers full of hormones. Do you think this is repulsive, I do. But dare I say that?
I hate to break the news to Metro Bank (MTRO), but I am never going to be one of its customers. A few years back, when the company had a share price of thirty, then twenty and then below ten quid, it used to make quite a few appearances on these pages as a number of us thought (correctly) that it was a dog stock. There have been a bunch of more interesting stocks to think about for the last few years, but I was reminded again about the apparently “highest rated high street bank for overall service quality for personal customers and the best bank for service in-store for personal and business customers, in the Competition and Markets Authority’s Service Quality Survey in February 2023” when I read about an “Admission and Listing of new ordinary shares” this morning.
On 4 November Metro Bank (MTRO) said it was in bid talks with private equity group Carlyle and that the private equity vultures had until December 2 to put up or shut up. Carlyle kicked a few tyres and looked under the bonnet and today it walked. Natch Metro phrased it differently:
As I noted yesterday, members of the OneMillionTradeMarch chatroom on Reddit were voting on which stock to buy en masse at 8 AM on Monday to #burntheshorters. Well there aren’t many shorters to burn in the case of the target pick but & if it rockets the big winners will be fat cat bankers but why stop the facts getting in a way of the narrative?
You know my long-standing views on the desperately challenged Metro Bank (MTRO), which trades at less than 5% of its share price level from two years ago (which itself had already halved from the all-time high). In short, a mega dog investment. Back in August, I observed that 'Metro Bank remains late to the party and full of challenges'. Today's sad sack of an update reiterates this with knobs on...
