British finance minister Alistair Darling said on Tuesday that any renegotiations of last month's 37 billion-pound ($56 billion) bailout package for the country's banks could prove costly for shareholders already angered at the extent of their losses.
Earlier this month George Mathewson and Peter Burt, former chief executives of Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland respectively, called on HBOS to abandon its government-brokered takeover by Lloyds TSB.
They have argued that HBOS can survive as a standalone bank, drawing on the funds on offer under the government's bailout package which only materialised on Oct. 13, after the takeover deal had already been hatched.
But Darling said in a written statement to parliament on Tuesday there was "no automatic right of access to the recapitalisation scheme".
"The institution must have a sustainable business model and delivery plan," Darling said of any revised application.
"The institution's funding profile, sources and mix must be clear, broad-based and sustainable and the senior management team must be credible."
He also said that any bank seeking a substantively new recapitalisation agreement would face "high-level" conditions and risked doing so at a lower share price than that agreed on Oct. 13.
Lloyds TSB shareholders are due to vote on the current government-backed recapitalisation plan and its associated takeover of HBOS on Wednesday.
Darling said if the government bought shares under a new offer, they would be priced at at least an 8.5 percent discount to either the prevailing market price or the price on Oct. 13, whichever is lower.
HBOS shares are currently trading around 67.5p, indicating the government would pay less than 62p for the shares compared with the 113.6p it will pay under the existing scheme.
The government would therefore have to buy up almost twice as much of the bank in order to inject the same amount of capital, leaving existing shareholders with an even smaller stake in the bank than currently envisaged.
Shares in Lloyds were down 10.5 percent at 133.4 pence by 1226 GMT while HBOS was 9.5 percent lower at 67.4 pence and Royal Bank of Scotland was off 7.6 percent at 41.3 pence.
Analysts said the weakness was being driven by general market gloom, falling bank stocks across Europe, with the DJ Stoxx European banking sector index down 5 percent, and the upcoming dilution that will occur when new shares are issued to the government in return for new capital under existing plans.
David Buik, partner at BGC Partners, said the government's inability to get "this wretched lifeboat deal" completed was also making investors nervous.
"Sir Peter Burt and Sir George Mathewson's sabre rattling, suggesting that there are better deals around … is also stopping any kind of calm and trust being restored to the interbank market," Buik said.
