Prudential may sell stake in Egg

Insurance group Prudential has put its stake in online bank Egg up for sale, it was reported today.

Prudential has put a £2bn (€2.88bn) price tag on its 79% stake in Egg despite saying in the summer that it did not plan to sell it, the Financial Sunday Express said.

City investment bank JP Morgan Chase has been asked to handle the sale, the report added.

A Prudential spokeswoman said the company would not comment on market rumour.

But she added: “In our interim results at the end of July, we said we were happy with Egg and had no plans to sell it. It’s only eight weeks since then.”

Egg employs more than 2,000 people in Derby, Dudley, London and Tours in France, where it has a credit card operation.

In July, Egg said losses in the French business had pushed the group into the red.

Egg made pre-tax losses of £22.8m (€32.8m) in the six months to June 30.

But group turnover was up by 30% and profits in its UK operation more than tripled after it attracted 340,000 new customers.

It said it would monitor the French business closely.

Last month, Egg’s 39-year-old chief financial officer Stacey Cartwright announced she was leaving “to seek fresh challenges”.