The Co-operative Bank (LON:CPBB) is up for sale prompting a number of people on Twitter to have the same idea.
Why don’t we, the people, buy it and run it as … a co-operative society?
Hey, can we organise to buy the co-op bank and run it, you know, co-operatively?
— artsyhonker/Kathryn (@artsyhonker) February 13, 2017
The bank nearly collapsed in 2013 but since, somewhat bizarrely for a mutual society with socialist sympathies, being supported by hedge funds, it has been on the comeback trail.
The current owners evidently think the bank has recovered enough that someone would be interested in buying it.
“We are now commencing a sale process, alongside other options,” said the lender’s current chairman, Dennis Holt.
“The bank's ethical heritage and customer proposition will be a central consideration in this,” he added.
Elsewhere on Twitter, with an Herculean effort, I shall note in passing it is UK pun day today and leave it at that.
#ukpunday A ship transporting red paint crashed into a ship transporting blue paint. All of the passengers were marooned.
— John Harrington (@JournoJohnH) February 13, 2017
Over on a well-known search engine, there seem to be two schools of thought over this morning’s trading update from Surface Transforms .
This web site you are reading went with “Surface Transforms slides on downbeat outlook” while the second and third most cited stories (modesty forbids us from saying what the top item was) go with the “significant progress” being made at the company.
With the shares off 6.1% at 20.90p – having been as low as 19.01p at one point – we’re going to stick with the view that the progress has not been significant enough in the market’s view.
To be fair, the company has had some bad luck and appears to have employed a dodgy builder that has been unsuccessful in fixing a gas main problem at its new factory at Knowsley.
We’ve all been there and done that.
To be fair, the company does have six irons in the fire, if that’s the right metaphor to use for a company that specialises in manufacturing carbon reinforced ceramic materials, in terms of original equipment manufacturing (OEM) agreements with six potential customers.
Maybe that’s the reason the shares have recovered a bit this morning.