Sandler says N. Rock could take years to repay loans

NEWCASTLE (Reuters) - Embattled mortgage bank Northern Rock could take "some years" to repay 25 billion pounds of government loans, its new executive chairman, Ron Sandler, told reporters on Monday.

"I think it is clearly unrealistic to be talking about months, we are clearly talking about a period of some years," he said, when asked how long the bank would take to repay the government.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the government announced plans to nationalise the bank over the weekend, Sandler said there was no evidence the bank had degraded during the turbulence of the past five months.

But he gave no details of his plans for the business or of possible job cuts, saying it was still too soon, but said he expected to pull a strategy together in a "relatively short period of time".

Sandler said the Treasury's Tom Scholar, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's former principal private secretary, would join the board along with Philip Remnant, chairman of the Shareholder Executive, the body created by the government in 2003 to improve its performance as a shareholder in businesses.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim)