Britain's Metro Bank first quarter profit halves

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Metro Bank on Wednesday reported a profit before tax of 4.3 million pounds, down from 8.6 million pounds a year ago, as the upstart lender battles to restore growth and investor confidence after a major accounting error.

Metro Bank on Jan. 29 said it had misclassified the risk weighting on a large book of loans, an announcement that wiped over 800 million pounds off its value, triggered regulatory probes and forced a 350 million pound equity raising.

The bank said on Wednesday that it aims to complete the share issue in the second quarter of this year.

(Reporting By Justin George Varghese and Lawrence White; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)