Former owner sells £15m stake in bank

The former owner of Secure Trust Bank has sold a £15m stake in its first major share sale for three years.

Arbuthnot Banking Group has sold a 5.7% stake in an institutional placing. The sale reduces its holdings by more than one-third, to just below 10%.

The sale, at 1460p per share, comes with the shares having reached their highest point for six months.

Arbuthnot’s subsidiary Arbuthnot Latham, which owned the shares, will use the proceeds “both to support future growth…and to reduce the significant additional regulatory capital that a holding of this size in another bank requires”.

Its smaller stake will see its dividend income reduce by around £800,000.

Solihull-based Secure Trust Bank is a retail and commercial bank. Earlier this year it revealed it would stop all new mortgage lending until “conditions become more favourable”, repositioning towards lower risk lending.