Colombian Billionaire Buys Stake in U.K.’s Troubled Metro Bank

(Bloomberg) -- One of Colombia’s richest men has snapped up a 4.3% stake in Metro Bank Plc, making him the troubled British lender’s third largest shareholder.

Jaime Gilinski Bacal purchased 7.4 million shares in Metro Bank through a British Virgin Islands-registered vehicle called Spaldy Investments Ltd., according to a statement to the London market. The Harvard-educated investor had no previously disclosed stake in the lender.

Metro Bank shares have lost close to 90% of their value this year after the firm shocked investors in January with the admission of errors in the way it calculated the risk on parts of its home lending portfolio. In May, the company raised 375 million pounds ($481 million) through the sale of new shares to shore up its capital position.

Gilinski is an experienced investor in the banking industry. In 2013, he became one of the largest shareholders in Banco Sabadell SA after it raised capital, at one point owning a 7.5% stake in the Spanish bank. He subsequently cut his holding.

Earlier this month, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce announced a deal to sell two-thirds of its Caribbean banking unit to a company run by Gilinski for $797 million.

Gilinski’s stake in Metro Bank is worth almost 15 million pounds based on Monday’s closing price.

A spokeswoman for Metro Bank declined to comment. Gilinski didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent through his LinkedIn account.

To contact the reporters on this story: Harry Wilson in London at hwilson57@bloomberg.net;Donal Griffin in London at dgriffin10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ambereen Choudhury at achoudhury@bloomberg.net, Chris Bourke, Keith Campbell

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