Britain's Northern Rock has named director Andy Kuipers as its new chief executive in a long-awaited trading update, but it also said it would take a £281m sterling hit from its exposure to credit market problems.
Kuipers replaces Adam Applegarth, who announced his resignation last month.
The bank said it remained in 'accelerated' discussions with a bidding consortium led by Virgin Group and was engaged with other parties, including investment group Olivant, headed by former Abbey boss Luqman Arnold. It also confirmed it expects to complete its strategic review by February.
Olivant, however, which would keep Northern Rock as a going concern, is pressing for a swift resolution.
It has written to Northern Rock threatening to withdraw from the rescue process unless a decision on the lender's fate is made by Christmas and unless it can get direct access to financing banks working with Northern Rock, a source familiar with the matter said late on Wednesday.
Northern Rock also said today that actual impairments on structured credit vehicles and potential impairments on its collateralised debt obligation (CDO) portfolio amounted to £281m pounds.
Northern Rock was engulfed in a funding crisis in September and has since been forced to borrow £25 billion from the Bank of England.
