VIRGIN Money is reported to be close to sealing a deal to buy part of Chester-based credit card business MBNA.
MBNA’s parent, Bank of America, put its Chester-based European arm up for sale in August.
National newspaper reports yesterday suggested Virgin was close to signing an agreement to buy part of MBNA’s loan book covering its own customers.
Virgin Money has a 50-50 joint venture with MBNA which represents around 35% of the Chester company’s £10bn total balance sheet.
It was also reported that Barclaycard could snap up the remaining £6.5bn of MBNA’s portfolio.
A bid by Apollo and Goldman Sachs to buy the whole MBNA business was reported to have been too low.
It is not yet known what any deals with Virgin Money and Barclays would mean for MBNA’s Chester base, which employs more than 3,000 people.
