Race to the bottom!
Iām ummimg and ahhing about either buying a little bit of this or barclays nowā¦ Barclays is probably the safer optionā¦ But this is potentially the more rewarding albeit riskier optionā¦ But
Whoa! Metro Bank is a wild ride. Makes Tesla look like a seesaw.
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There is no reward here. This is a bank that either gets bought up or fails. Donāt be fooled into thinking āstocks always go up in the long runā means āthis stock will go up in the long runā.
You cannot build a bank on ācommunity valuesā and āopening more branchesā (read: throw money away, at an even higher rate than other banks due to opening hours) and expect it to work in a world where the people who need those things are dying off. The writing was on the wall long ago, when every single other bank began closing branches every single year.
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Fair point! Monzo should buy them out so that we can deposit cash in to the accounts 
I donāt think its as dramatic as that. Youāve got a mixture of large ex-owner rapidly selling down stake, a heavy bond getting heavier as the interest rate declines and obviously Coronavirus hitting stocks more broadly. Up until the miscalculation of the bond this was a bank making profit, rapidly opening branches trading at near Ā£20 a share.
Now itās a well capitalised bank trading at 10% of itās book value, to say its oversold would be an understatement.
But of course none of that means anything if we get a liquidity squeeze.
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Just bit the bullet and bought some more, 60% cheaper than my first buy. But could only buy in batches of Ā£100 - anything over this and the order kept rejecting.
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New RNS shows Spaldy Investments Limited have upped their stake from 8.077% to 9.018%.
I just canāt see their model work, but maybe I am not the target customer.
American style customer service in crazily oversized branches in super expensive city locations, in a world with ever decreasing margins in retail banking.
Am I missing something?
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Going to flip this on itās head. If they didnāt have the 70 branches could you then see their Metro working? How much is a welcoming branch with a lot of passing foot traffic worth in terms of promotion?
I walk past a few in central London, and rarely see people there. Then I think about the rent per square foot of those massive branches, and shudder. A bit further I pass āThe Nedā, which used to be the Midland Bank and was massive and very opulent, and it just feels like Metro is just a throwback in time.
Closer to home I got a branch from Lloydās, itās a bit small and pokey, could do with a new carpet, but I only go there once every blue moon. Itās nice to have a branch local, but I am not inclined to just visit them unless I got something urgent.
But like I said, I may be missing something.
One of the big differences with a Metro Branch and a Lloyds one is the Metro one has safe deposit boxes which seem to be generating them over Ā£11.1m in 2018 up from Ā£9.1m in 2017. Donāt know what it amounts to in 2019 as they have not published the annual report yet. Back in 2017 it was reported it covers 80% rent of stores. Also Lloyds have over 1100 branches vs Metroās 70.
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Interesting. Didnāt know that. Useful insight.
It dipped down to around 85pā¦never a dull day with Metro 
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Shorters clearing out as Bacal is approaching a takeover quantity?
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I would love to see a short squeeze.
In other Metro news. They have finally opened the Liverpool branch
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Legal Entity Identifier: 213800X5WU57YL9GPK89
Metro Bank plcRoger Farah to step down as Non-Executive Director
Metro Bank (āthe Bankā) today announces that, after six years on the Board, Roger Farah has decided to step down as a Non-Executive Director with immediate effect.
The Metro Bank Board wishes to thank Roger for his contribution to the Bank. As a result of his departure, Catherine Brown will become Chair of the Remuneration Committee and Monique Melis will become Chair of the Nomination Committee, subject to regulatory approval. Monique will continue in her role as interim Senior Independent Director.
Following the departure of Roger Farah, the Board excluding the Chairman will comprise seven Non-Executive Directors, five of whom are independent, and two Executive Directors.
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They are celebrating opening a Liverpool branch when people are encouraged to stay at home. The future of retail banking is branchless but their fax machines ran out of paper so they didnāt get the memo.
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RNS - Steven Cohen is below 3% now.