The most probable Northern Rock's future is being bought by a large bank or any other bidder who could afford bank's financial situation.
Private equity firms in the US and UK are known to be circling Northern Rock. The american JC Flowers seems to be one of the bidders. Mr Flowers is one of the richest americans according to The Forbes 400 http://forbes.com/lists/2006. The Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday he may join the Cerberus Capital Management LP and Citadel Investment Group LLC hedge funds to split up Northern Rock.
While rumors of possible contenders are at every press, the UK's fifth-biggest mortgage lender tries to calm its customers with the message "Your funds are safe with Northern Rock" http://www.northernrock.co.uk/. The reason is that about £1 billion was withdrawn by panicking customers on Friday. As a concenquence the company's shares suffered a big decrease in their value on the market.
The Sunday Telegraph's photo
To sum up, if no bidder appears during the next few weeks the bank may be force to consider separating sales of its mortgage book.
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