(Reuters) - Britain's Metro Bank has finalised plans to list on the London Stock Exchange with Feb. 24 pencilled in for the start of conditional trading, Sky News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Metro Bank would list shares at 24 pounds each, valuing Britain's first new retail bank for more than a century at close to 2 billion pounds, Sky News said.
The bank is yet to make a full-year profit, although documents seen by Sky News show that Metro Bank cut its loss for the last three months of 2015 to 10.1 million pounds from 10.7 million in the third quarter.
The bank plans to raise 500 million pounds by selling new shares to existing investors via a private placement, Sky News said.
Founded by U.S. entrepreneur Vernon Hill, the bank has been cited by some lawmakers as an alternative to Britain's "big four" lenders: Lloyds Banking Group (L:LLOY), Royal Bank of Scotland (L:RBS), Barclays (L:BARC) and HSBC.
Metro Bank could not immediately be reached for comment outside regular business hours.