UK specialist lender Shawbrook is weighing a sale or a London listing at a valuation of £2 billion.
Shawbrook's private equity owners BC Partners and Pollen Street Capital, are said to be lining up Goldman Sachs to spearhead a public listing during the first half of the year.
The IPO plan depends on market conditions, with an outright sale another possibility as the bank's owners seek a return on their investment.
Shawbrook was launched in 2011 when Pollen Street, which at the time was part of Royal Bank of Scotland, bought Whiteaway Laidlaw Bank, which was then rebranded as Shawbrook.
Previous plans to extract value from the investment through an IPO or sale, fell apart after the challenger bank’s SME customers were hit by rampant inflation and rising energy costs.
An IPO would be a welcome filip for the London listing market which has suffered a net outflow of customers since the global financial crisis and more recently seen a flight by big name companies to list in New York.