The top mortgage lender announced that just 8.29% of the new shares offered in its ã4bn rights issue were taken up.
Underwriters Morgan Stanley and Dresdner have two days to find buyers willing to pay at least 275p a share before they have to buy the shares.
Poor poor underwriters. My heart bleeds. They knew the risk, and they ought to be capable of remembering the Government's third privitisation issue of BP shares (which probably predates the Internet's knowledge, so I'm not going to hunt for a link).
