State-Owned Northern Rock PLC Cuts Losses

State-owned mortgage lender Northern Rock PLC reduced its half-year losses to £78.8m in the first six months of 2011, compared with £140m in the same period last year.

Northern Rock, the so-called good side of the business, which holds savings, said it expects to make a profit during next year.
It was split from the 'bad bank', home to Northern Rock's toxic loans, three years ago following its near collapse.
The lender's existing portfolio in the 'bad bank' has continued to make progress.
Northern Rock Asset Management, which later merged with Bradford & Bingley's lending arm, repaid £1bn to the Government in the first half of the year, almost as much as it paid in the whole of 2010.
Ron Sandler, executive chairman of Northern Rock, said: "Northern Rock has made good progress in the first half of 2011.
"The company continued to be loss-making, as expected, but losses are significantly reduced and we are generating momentum."

Northern Rock PLC was formally put up for sale by the chancellor George Osborne earlier this year, but a sell-off could mean that taxpayers lose £400m.
The two main bidders, Virgin Money, Sir Richard Branson’s banking business and JC Flowers, the US private equity investor, have said they could offer between £900m and £1bn.
That is significantly lower than the £1.4bn which the Government spent on the bank when it was nationalised.
It is being sold by Britain's UKFI organization, which was set up to manage the state's holding in banks bailed out during the crisis, including Lloyds and RBS.
Mr Sandler said: "We are working closely with UKFI and our advisers to explore the options for a sale of Northern Rock, at the right time and in the best interest of tax payers.
"We are pleased with the level of interest we have received, and will continue to explore the sale option over the coming months."
Aggressive lending practices caused Northern Rock's near collapse in 2007 and the then Labour Government put in £1.4bn of taxpayers' money to prop it up.
The nationalisation of the bank sparked the first run on a UK bank for 150 years.
Source http://news.sky.com/