LONDON—The chief executive of Bradford & Bingley Plc has stepped down less than a month after the embattled mortgage bank surprised investors with an emergency cash call and a day ahead of an unscheduled trading update.
"We can confirm that, due to a serious cardiovascular condition, Steven Crawshaw is stepping down as chief executive with immediate effect," the bank said in a statement on Sunday.
Crawshaw had been under pressure since the specialist lender announced a 300 million pound ($591 million) rights issue in May to bolster its balance sheet, just a month after saying publicly that it had no plans to do so.
B&B said at the time it had waited for markets to stabilise before going ahead with the deeply discounted issue, but its shares have since fallen over 40 percent.
Chairman Rod Kent will take over executive control of Britain's biggest buy-to-let lender, B&B added.
The bank confirmed it plans to update the market on its current trading on Monday, but declined to comment on reports it would also warn on its profit outlook for the current year.
B&B had said in its last trading update in April that buy-to-let demand remained strong, despite turbulence in the property market, with volumes in line with expectations though lower than last year.
But the Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday Times said the bank would instead say full-year pretax profit could come in below the current analyst range of 160 million pounds to 200 million.
The warning would be included in the bank's rights issue document to be sent to investors within five days, the Sunday Times said.
The bank's shares have fallen some 44 percent since the cash call was announced and closed on Friday at 88-1/4p — close to record lows and just off the rights issue price of 82p.
"It's a bit like they are driving along in a little cartoon car, just waiting to fall off the cliff," one unnamed investor was quoted as saying in the Sunday Times.
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