Don't know when you bought at 111p, Stephen, but looking at this I
would suspect in 2003?

Egg has a client base that some companies may want to add to their
own client base. I mean, anyone that pays interest, instead of earning
it, has got to be a wanted commodity, hasn't it? :-))

For what it's worth, now that it has cut its losing French connection,
I would suggest that in the future that you will either get a price that
will give you an exit, or a takeover bid that will give you a profit.

All you need is patience, and not have a need for the money in the
forseeable future, and I think that you will get an exit/profit
point in the future.

Melnibone.

Published on Hemscott on 7/10/04

Egg - Friday 1st October 2004

Freed from the shackles of the Prudential's time wasting auction, online bank Egg has been able to get on with dismantling its disastrous French empire; the shares are starting to look like a reasonable investment for the first time in ages, says Rodney Hobson.

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Egg is in talks with Banque Accord to sell Egg France's unsecured lending business, which includes 66,000 credit card customers. While it must be sickening to have to deal with a French financial institution after the establishment there studiously avoided forming a partnership with Egg, the UK bank is sensibly not cutting off its nose to spite its face.

Egg is unlikely to get much of a price for the lossmaking operation - it might have to virtually give the business away - but at least that stems the outward cash flow. Much more importantly, a deal will take 100 of the 450 Egg France employees out of the redundancy equation. Sacking staff is never easy in the European Union. Egg has allowed 170m to cover the cost of closing down in France and any deal could reduce the bill.

Egg has been completely screwed up by 79% shareholder Prudential, which scorned an offer for its stake back in January then held an auction that produced lower offers. By the time Pru chief executive Jonathan Bloomer faced up to reality seven months later, Egg had abandoned any hope of finding a French partner to share the development costs over there. Noone wanted to do a deal with Egg when they did not know who would own it.

Egg shares fell 1p to 93p today, which seems a curious reaction to what is essentially good news. They were as high as 190p on bid hopes and are now trying to find a floor.

It would probably be wrong to hope that Bloomer will now accept a realistic bid for the Pru stake, since potential buyers are unlikely to offer anywhere near 190p and Bloomer has shown no humility over his mistaken attempt to drive the price over 200p.

However, there may at last be some upside potential in Egg, which has been extremely successful in the UK. Those tempted to buy might do best to let the shares settle first, though.

Things are warming up! -Ready for another takeover boys?

Any thoughts?

Yes, it's at a four month high. The January's trading update was very positive and I expect to see the share price recover further from these levels.

Up 7% today, breaking through resistance levels to reach its hieghest level for 6 months.

From Yahoo finance AFX news today
Prudential shares were higher, up 9-1/2 pence at 476-1/2 amid talk that the UK insurer had managed to sell its 79 pct stake in internet banking group Egg

and from Monday 31/1

LONDON (AFX) - Egg PLC (LSE: EGG.L - news) said its founder and former chief executive Mike Harris will step down as executive vice chairman after the annual general meeting on May 16.
He will continue to provide strategic advice to Egg until he retires from the company at the end of January 2006.
Harris became head of Prudential Banking in July 1995 and he was behind the launch of Egg, the UK's first ever online bank, in October 1998.

Is the continued 'strategic advice' a good thing I wonder??

Final results due on the 23rd Feb. This will be watched very closely to see if recovery is on track.