B&B bankers left with over 70 percent of rights issue

By Clara Ferreira-Marques

LONDON (Reuters) - Bankers for Bradford & Bingley BB.L have been left with over 70 percent of its 400 million pound rights issue, the lender said, as it hired the former head of rival Alliance & Leicester to draw a line under its troubles.

The mortgage bank, which has seen a torrid three months since it first surprised the market with news of an emergency rights issue, named City veteran Richard Pym as chief executive.

Pym replaces Steven Crawshaw, who quit in June for health reasons as B&B struggled to push through the funding boost.

The former chief executive of A&L ALLL.L has already taken the helm but is not expected to outline his strategy before October, though he told Reuters he would review a deal to buy loans from finance company GMAC that has driven arrears higher.

"I don't think there is a banking chief executive in the world who doesn't have some issues to address at the moment, and I haven't seen anything to date that ... we can't resolve," he said in a telephone interview.

"Obviously, there are some specialist loans which have got high arrears at the moment, but the core lending book, the prime buy-to-let book, is very solid."

The embattled bank, forced to turn to investors for cash in the face of a fast-deteriorating UK economy, said on Monday investors took up only 27.8 percent of its fundraising.

Underwriters Citi and UBS now have until Friday to place the remainder of the cut-price, twice-restructured offering.