Northern Rocks Future In Shareholders Hand's

Northern Rock Shareholders meet today in Newcastle to decide the company's future. With some shareholders backing moves to restrict the board's ability to offload the company without prior shareholder approval.

But analysts are warning that if such a move is approved, then the ability of a rescue deal to go through will be harder to achieve and this could result in the Government taking steps to nationalise the bank, reducing the worth to the shareholders.

The Government would prefer an existing interested party to take over the bank, but both are struggling to raise the required level of funding to cover the purchase. This means the government are more likely to have to become involved, although that does come with questions about breaching state aid laws.