Peter Burt, the chief executive of Bank of Scotland, which this year lost out to Royal Bank of Scotland in the battle for National Westminster Bank, said yesterday he would be prepared to go hostile again if the right chance presented itself. Peter Burt, the chief executive of Bank of Scotland, which this year lost out to Royal Bank of Scotland in the battle for National Westminster Bank, said yesterday he would be prepared to go hostile again if the right chance presented itself .
Mr Burt said he believed that consolidation in UK banking was by no means over, although he said there were no obvious acquisition opportunities in the UK at the moment. “I am not attracted by a mortgage bank,” he said.Speaking as the bank unveiled a 14 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £965m in the year to the end of February, Mr Burt said he did not regret the decision to bid for NatWest.The figures showed the bank coming under severe domestic interest margin pressure. They failed to excite the City, where Bank of Scotland shares tumbled 57.5p to 587p.

Analysts were also concerned at rising bad debt provisions.Mr Burt said the bid for NatWest had galvanised staff and boosted the image of the bank. The headlines generated resulted in Bank of Scotland winning business from corporate customers which had not known that Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland were not the same bank.”There will be other opportunities What those opportunities will be, who knows? .. I’d prefer not to go hostile. But the fact that a hostile bid for NatWest succeeded – sadly not ours – is against the conventional wisdom that hostile bids for banks cannot succeed,” Mr Burt said.After the five-month bid battle for the UK clearer, Bank of Scotland has reverted to what it calls Plan A – growing organically and in partnership with other organisations that can bring access to a wider customer base.The bank also unveiled plans to launch a UK joint venture to provide equity and mezzanine finance for small and medium-sized firms and the private equity market.Bank of Scotland said it was talking to a UK household name about a new internet banking partnership. It is also planning to extend Eubos, its Net-based mortgage lending venture that has won £350m of business in Holland in a matter of months, to Germany. The bank is also looking Net-based sales of investment products in France.Mr Burt agreed that his message contained little to set the pulses racing “Banking should be boring,” he said.. Industry is on the brink of slipping back into recession and investment is falling sharply, the Confederation of British Industry warned yesterday when it published its latest survey of manufacturing. Industry is on the brink of slipping back into recession and investment is falling sharply, the Confederation of British Industry warned yesterday when it published its latest survey of manufacturing.
Nick Reilly, chairman of Vauxhall Motors and head of the CBI’s economics committee, urged the Bank of England not to raise interest rates again next week, as that could send the strong pound higher still.

“Failure to keep rates on hold could send manufacturing into decline,” he said.The CBI also called for the Government to take steps to reverse some of the increase in the burden of business taxation since 1997. Kate Barker, the CBI’s chief economist, said the organisation wanted the Chancellor to withdraw planned changes to corporate taxation announced in the Budget and now going through Parliament in the Finance Bill.The pound’s index against other currencies climbed higher still yesterday as the euro fell to new lows. The strong pound claimed its latest victim with the closure of the Dunlop boot factory at Walton, near Liverpool, after 150 years. The sterling index ended at 111.9, up from 111.4, having climbed higher during the day The pound advanced to 58.30p to the euro. The European currency fell against the dollar to a low of 91.60 cents.The euro was not boosted by comments from Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor. He said it was a mistake to think that European politicians welcomed the weak currency for its boost to exports.DeAnne Julius, the leading “dove” on the Monetary Policy Committee, yesterday expressed concern about the strong pound. “Manufacturers just can’t compete at this sort of rate,” she said, adding that inflation had been below target in the past because exchange rate forecasts had been “badly wrong”.