No compensation for B&B shareholders

Former investors in nationalised lender Bradford & Bingley (B&B) should receive no compensation for their shares, the independent valuer of the stricken business said yesterday.

The decision impacts some 935,000 shareholders in B&B, which saw its loan book nationalised and its savings arm sold off to Spanish banking giant Santander in September 2008 during the financial crisis.

The move will be a bitter disappointment to investors but PricewaterhouseCoopers valuer Peter Clokey said he made his decision after weighing up "representations from a wide range of groups and individuals".

Bradford & Bingley's shares closed at 20p each in the final day of trading before the nationalisation and break-up of the group.

The company - which listed on the London Stock Exchange in December 2000 - was one of Britain's best known building societies, formed from the 1964 merger between the Bradford Equitable Building Society and the Bingley Building Society.

The B&B Shareholders Action Group - which had previously said that any valuation below 55p a share would be "tantamount to theft" - plans to appeal against the PwC decision.