It is a month since Malcolm Le May, chief executive of Provident Financial, saddled up and set off in search of a white knight to save one of the UK’s largest lenders to people with impaired credit. His task began after a rival, Non-Standard Finance, proposed a hostile takeover backed by key investors in both companies.
No white knight has yet emerged and, worse still, one potential buyer of Provident, Amigo Loans, formally ruled itself out last week.
Fading hopes that a counter bidder for Provident would emerge are reflected in the fact that most of the bid premium that had buoyed its shares has dissipated in recent days.
That leaves NSF’s bid on the table, offering 8.88 shares for each Provident share, valuing the