HBOS today shored up its strategic position in its 10-year banking partnership with J Sainsbury, paying £21m to buy a further 5% of Sainsbury's Bank, the embattled supermarket-based financial services operation, reports the Times .
Buying the additional shareholding gives Britain's fourth-largest bank an equal 50:50 share of the cashpoint and branch-based joint venture and puts a value of about £420m on the bank. It also sees HBOS install Benny Higgins, the chief executive of its retail banking business, as Sainsbury's Bank's new chairman for the next two years. Darren Shapland, Sainsbury's finance director, will subsequently become chairman through a rotation agreement which is part of 50:50 joint ventures, says the paper. Sainsbury's Bank, set up in 1997 and offering a range of products including credit cards ...
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