NATIONAL Australia Bank chief executive Cameron Clyne has ruled out a distressed sale of Clydesdale Bank but cautioned its recovery depends on the UK economy.
Last week NAB recorded a 22% fall in annual net profit to A$4.08 billion (£2.6bn) thanks in large part to Clydesdale which posted a £183 million loss for the 12 months to September 30.
Mr Clyne admitted that shareholders were "rightly not happy with the UK performance".
He told an Australian television channel: "We've very much called out the need to manage for long- term value. Our share- holders do not want to see a distressed exit. But in the interim we've got a very difficult economic environment."
Earlier this year the company announced that Clydesdale would retrench into its heartlands in the north of England and Scotland and that the group would take on billions of pounds worth of troubled commercial property loans.
David Thorburn replaced Lynne Peacock as chief executive last year.
Meanwhile, all but two of the bank's non-executive directors have departed with a number of NAB executives taking board seats.
Mr Clyne said the Glasgow-based bank now had a stronger management team. He also insisted the core Clydesdale business made a profit during the past six months.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article