Their current price makes me wonder - particularly foreign institutions wanting a big fat foothold in the UK?

R.

Absolutely SB. Do you consider LLOY to be potential buyer for EGG from PRU?

Maybe...not really convinced one way or the other to be honest on who
would take on egg, OK it's an internet bank, but so are many others and
all the big high street banks operate on the web themselves anyway. Plus
it's in the red isn't it - hardly a carrot to buy it - a bank in this
consumer spending environment that isn't making a profit! As the same could
be said for LLOY, depending on how you choose to read the figures today, I
can't see it being worth their while. I'd expect them to try and buy
something larger in the domestic market, if they really want a challenge
they could always go for ANL!!!!!

Would such a bid get past the regulators? I can see lots of cost savings merging ANL mortgages with LLOY's C&G but reducing competition on the High St -still viewed negatively. ANL still loss-suffering, has worse reputation than EGG which does not have traditional high 'customer interface' overheads and appears to be tinkering at the margins with the 're-launch' "ABBEY". ANL would be too expensive IMHO.