British mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley took a £94 million write-down on its exposure to tarnished assets today and saw other big one-off items derail profits and send its shares to a record low.
B&B shares tumbled over 15 per cent after Britain's biggest buy-to-let mortgage provider said £226 million of one-off charges would cut its 2007 statutory profit to £126 million, from £247 million the year before.
The bank unveiled a bigger-than-expected impairment on wholesale assets after being forced to write down the value of its assets in structured investment vehicles (SIVs) by £64.2 million and mark down the value of its holdings on collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) by £30.2 million.
It is the latest bank to reveal a big hit after a credit crunch has cut the value of assets in structured vehicles. At the end of November B&B said it had £125 million of exposure to four SIVs and £140 million of exposure to CDOs, but had said none of it was permanently impaired.
B&B also unsettled investors by taking a bigger-than-expected £58 million loss on the sale of a commercial and housing association mortgage portfolio and a fair value adjustment on treasury instruments of £50 million.
Analysts had expected some write-downs and other losses, Cazenove said its forecast for exceptional items was £67 million, less than a third of the reported figure.
Earlier shares were down 12.2 per cent at 214 pence, after falling as low as 205p, their lowest level since the bank floated just over seven years ago.