Brokers form bid queue for Singer & Friedlander

Stockbrokers including Numis, Evolution and WH Ireland are all considering bids for Singer & Friedlander, the stockbroker owned by bust Icelandic bank Kaupthing.

West End-based S&F, which collapsed into administration last week, would provide a successful bidder with an experienced and highly rated team of brokers as well as a sizeable infrastructure on which to build a private-client wealth management business.

S&F's 600 staff also provide corporate banking, capital markets and investment services from offices around the country. Lloyds TSB expressed an interest in the business last week but has since gone cold on the idea.

An executive at one broker looking to bid said: "Normally, we would not buy businesses outright because you have to pay a premium. But in these troubled times, the premium is disappearing rapidly. Where before we would just have taken teams, on this occasion it could work to buy the whole company."

Kaupthing bought S&F in 2005 for £547 million.