Bradford & Bingley bail out angers shareholders

By Lorraine Turner

LONDON (Reuters) - Small Bradford & Bingley shareholders fear that like investors in Northern Rock they stand to lose everything after the government bailed out the bank with a mixture of nationalisation and asset disposals.

The UK Shareholders Association said on Monday it had received 300 complaints from private Bradford & Bingley shareholders who have received no communication from the government about the fate of their holdings.

"The government has confiscated 1.5 billion pounds in assets and haven't said what they're going to do with it," a spokesman at the UK body told Reuters.

The Treasury announced plans to take the bank's 50 billion pound mortgage book under public administration last week and sell its deposits and branches to Spain's Santander.

Shareholders are aggrieved that the move occurred only months after they were tapped for 400 million pounds via the group's rights issue in July.

"The view of Bradford & Bingley shareholders is that it was a sound company and worth preserving. It could have been saved," the group's spokesman said.

Chancellor Alistair Darling told parliament on Monday that it was impossible to say what, if anything, would be left for Bradford & Bingley investors.

"We will do what is right, but at this stage it's really quite impossible to say what is left, because this bank does have a lot of assets which are not worth a lot at the end of the day," Darling said during a statement on the financial crisis.