Shawbrook holds investor talks about £2bn float amid bank tax fears

Shawbrook Group has kicked off initial talks with prospective investors in an initial public offering (IPO) of the business-focused lender, even as the City speculates about potential banking tax hikes in the November Budget.

Sky News has learnt that Shawbrook and its advisers have been holding a series of pilot-fishing meetings this month as its owners deliberate over the timing of a flotation. BC Partners and Pollen Street Capital, the private equity firms, initially hoped to launch a London listing in the first half of this year, before pushing back that timetable to sometime before the end of 2025.

Money blog: Britain's best and worst cities to live in ranked People close to the company said on Friday that while a flotation in the second half of the year remained possible, the later-than-expected timing of Rachel Reeves's Budget meant that a 2026 stock market return had become increasingly plausible. The Treasury has declined to comment on growing speculation that the chancellor will look to the UK banking sector to fill part of a substantial fiscal black hole.

Pilot fishing meetings are held to pre-market an IPO, testing investor sentiment towards a potential deal without the formal launch of a process. During the summer, Sky News revealed that Shawbrook was in talks to buy ThinCats, a lender to medium-sized businesses, in a deal worth about £180m.

The transaction, which was subsequently confirmed, has fuelled expectations that Shawbrook can attain a public market valuation of more than the £2bn mooted earlier this year. Shawbrook, which employs close to 1,600 people, has well over 500,000 customers.

Founded in 2011, it was established as a specialist savings and lending institution, providing loans for home improvement projects and weddings, as well as business and real estate lending. In recent years it has explored a string of sizeable corporate transactions, including mergers with or takeovers of rivals including Metro Bank, Starling Bank and the Co-operative Bank.

BC Partners and Pollen Street own equal stakes in Shawbrook, with its management team also owning a minority. The bank is run by Marcelino Castrillo, chief executive.

Shawbrook and Pollen Street both declined to comment..