The Co-operative group sold off its final one percent stake in the Co-operative bank, leaving the group without any investment in the bank.
The news came as the group’s interim profits were announced, revealing a profit decrease of 48 percent after its insurance business fell into a loss.
The drastic fall in profits was due to the £29 million payout in discounts to under the revived membership rewards scheme. If the member payouts are excluded from the data, there was an increase in underlying profits.
When asked about the membership scheme, chief executive Steve Murrells, said:“The reward scheme is absolutely the right thing to do when people are strapped for cash because of Brexit,” Murrells said.
According to Murrells, the membership scheme has attracted 1.1 million members in the past year, allowed them to save money “in the same way they would have done with Co-op stamps in yesteryear”.
The group provided no details about who bought the remaining one percent worth of shares in the bank, but an estimated £5 million was raised from the sale.
When asked on the BBC Today program how long the bank would retain the Co-op name, Murrells said: “That’s a question you should put to the bank itself. There are clear articles of usage of the bank and that is regularly monitored by independent bodies.”
The Co-op Group have made no comments on rumours surrounding plans to buy the UK convenience store operator Nisa.
There are plans that the group is considering a £140 million bid, to take over the 3,000 Nisa stores.
The chief executive said that talks with Nisa are set to continue until the Co-op had decided whether or not to go ahead with the deal.