Abbey investors left reeling

ABBEY National’s two million shareholders must be furious with company chairman Terry Burns, who fought such an aggressive battle to ward-off the takeover assault by Bank of Ireland’s chief executive Michael Soden.

The Soden led raid on the British bank valued Abbey shares at stg£7.50 each.

They opened yesterday morning at just stg£4.40 but the bad news for Abbey Investors has been compounded by house broker UBS Warburg who slashed its share price target from stg£7.87 to stg£3.80 and predicted the bank would halve its 2002 dividend to 25p.