A consortium led by Richard Branson's Virgin Group said it plans to immediately repay 'a significant proportion' of a loan from the Bank of England under a takeover proposal for Northern Rock it has submitted.
Virgin said 'a clear timeline is envisaged for full repayment of the borrowings and the release of HMT's (the British Treasury's) guarantees' in regard to emergency loans to the embattled lender.
Virgin had earlier told Reuters it would lodge its proposal by an informal deadline set today by advisers for interested parties.
Separately, Northern Rock's chief executive Adam Applegarth resigned today.
He will continue to run the group until around the end of January next year, yhowever, the bank said in a statement.
Northern Rock ran into serious trouble sourcing credit in September as it became caught up in the fallout from the US subprime housing crisis.
