Northern Rock set to post profit

Newcastle: Northern Rock, a unit of the nationalised British bank that is up for sale, said it expects it will post a profit in the second half of 2012 as the company seeks to expand its loan book.

The taxpayer-owned lender reported a smaller loss of £68.5m (€78.6m) for the six months to June 30 from £142.6m loss for the same period a year earlier, it said yesterday.

“The company continued to be loss-making, as expected, but losses are significantly reduced and we are generating momentum,” chairman Ron Sandler said in a statement.