RNS Number : 0793I

Lloyds Banking Group PLC

08 June 2011

68/11 8 June 2011

LLOYDS BANKING GROUP ANNOUNCES SALE OF HILL HIRE PLC

Lloyds Banking Group plc announces today that it has sold Hill Hire plc to US based Ryder System Inc for cash consideration of GBP151 million. The book value of the business is GBP167 million. The impact of the sale, which completed earlier today, on the Group's accounts is not material.

Hill Hire is the leading provider of contract hire and rental solutions for trucks and trailers in the UK.

This transaction is part of the Group's ongoing strategy to divest assets which are not core to its business.

- END -

lloys may float the 600 branches as a new bank if bids are to low .

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.Thu 9 Jun 2011 11:03 - UK Markets close in 5 hrs and 26 mins
..Lloyds prepares IPO option if branch auction flops

tweet0Print..Companies:Citigroup IncABBEYLLOYDS BANKING GRPTopics:InternationalDirector DealingsBoard & Management Changes.Related Quotes
Symbol Price Change
C 36.81 0.00

DOY.IR 5.05 0.00

LLOY.L 47.80 -0.88

TSCO.L 406.55 -2.35


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{"s" : "C,DOY.IR,LLOY.L,TSCO.L","k" : "a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00","o" : "","j" : ""} 10:28, Thursday 9 June 2011

LONDON (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY.L - news) will spin off over 600 branches and list them as a new bank if an auction of the business fails to attract decent bids.

Last month, Lloyds appointed Paul Pester to run the branches earmarked for sale, and said he would head the business if it was separately listed.

"It has always been the objective to have a dual track. We will look for a buyer, and if we need to, the IPO option is there," a spokeswoman for Lloyds said on Thursday.

Lloyds has been told by European regulators to sell 600 branches, which would represent the seventh-biggest bank and could be worth more than 3 billion pounds, analysts have said.

It needs to sell them as the cost of taking a state rescue during the financial crisis, which has left the taxpayer with a 41 percent stake.

Selling the branches is the preferred option, and Virgin Money, part of entrepreneur Richard Branson's group, last week said it planned to bid, and new UK bank venture NBNK is seen as the other front-runner.

Other bidders could include National Australia Bank and food retailer Tesco (LSE: TSCO.L - news) .

"We have identified credible interest ... We will have serious indications of interest by the end of July," Chief Executive Antonio Horta-Osorio told UK lawmakers when quizzed on the sale on Wednesday.

Formal sales documents will be sent out on Friday.

An independent commission assessing competition among Britain's banks wants Lloyds to sell more branches, however, to create a stronger new entrant. It will make formal recommendations in September.

Horta-Osorio said there was "overwhelming evidence" the sale of 600 branches would create a serious competitor, however. It would account for about 5 percent of UK current accounts.

JPMorgan and Citigroup (NYSE: C - news) , who are advising on the sale, have offered to help bidders fill a funding gap of nearly 20 billion pounds.

The branches in the portfolio include Lloyds TSB in Scotland, the Cheltenham & Gloucester business, and over 250 more Lloyds branches in England and Wales.

Pester joined Lloyds from Santander , where he managed the integration of Bradford & Bingley (Xetra: 602362 - news) with Abbey (Irish: DOY.IR - news) and Alliance & Leicester and the rebranding of the enlarged business. He previously led the building of Virgin Money during five years as CEO.

(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Will Waterman)

This must surely be very good news ... and about time too .... bt some at 47.73
would have done more but for govt appearing to believe it can save the world.

700 Lloyds staff to be redeployed

Lloyds Banking Group plans to offer jobs elsewhere to the 700 staff affected by the closure of its call centre at Bridgend in Wales.

The Group said the closure next spring was part of its decision to reduce its number of offices. The staff will be redeployed mainly to the bank's offices in Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.

At 2:04pm: (LON:LLOY) Lloyds-TSB share price was -1.13p at 47.55p


Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

still waiting for my 43p to buy back in and i will get them

the sell off .is it not illegal to give others personal details without the cutomers permission.if my details are passed to other banks then i will sue .
i signed and refused to give permission 40 years ago and i still refuse for any new accounts or any info to contact me or send me .i will decide what and who i deal with

Lloyds may cut 15,000 jobs in costs drive - paper

tweet0Print..Companies:LLOYDS BANKING GRPTopics:Board & Management ChangesInternationalBanks.Related Quotes
Symbol Price Change
LLOY.L 47.00 -0.81


{"s" : "LLOY.L","k" : "a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00","o" : "","j" : ""} 12:11, Sunday 12 June 2011

LONDON (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY.L - news) could cut up to 15,000 jobs as part of a new 1 billion pounds cost-saving plan, according to a report in the Sunday Times newspaper.

The report said whole layers of management would be stripped out of the bank, with hundreds of jobs likely to go at its head office and thousands of posts to be cut across Britain and in its remaining international outposts.

Lloyds, which is about 41 percent-owned by the government, last week said it would axe 300 jobs across its retail, wholesale and wealth units. It has shed 27,000 jobs over the last two years, as it continues an integration programme following its 2008 takeover of troubled lender HBOS.

Lloyds is due to announce the results of a strategic review later this month, which may outline further cost-saving initiatives and possible asset sales.

A Lloyds spokesman told Reuters the report was "entirely speculative" and that the bank would announce the conclusions of its strategic review on June 30.

Lloyds Chief Executive Antonio Horta-Osorio told British politicians last week that the strategy review would be "evolutionary rather than revolutionary."

Lloyds is in the process of selling 632 branches to meet European Union competition rules, but Britain's finance ministry wants advance knowledge of how many bank branches it should sell to boost competition.

(Reporting by Rhys Jones; Editing by Hans Peters)

the very people that do all the work in lloys to lose jobs the directors who destoyed the bank walk away with millions they should be in prison. they are liars and crooks

Beware the defamation laws, Tank

Oriel Note:
The Sunday Times speculates on a further 15,000 job cuts at Lloyds Baking Group as
part of Antonio Horta-Orsorio's strategic review.
Comments that a further 1bn is to be taken off Lloyds Banking Group's existing 11bn cost base.
Cost cutting will focus on delayering the 14 layers of management between branch manager and the CEO
Whilst Lloyds earnings are predominantly UK based it does operate in a number of overseas territories, many (but not all) of which will be exited.
The article suggests some country positions will be retained as a basis for future international growth after the initial domestic restructuring.
Key date: 30 June 2011, Strategy update.
We reiterate our BUY recommendation and 90p price target ahead of the strategy update

t o k . daniels second lie . I WILL RETURN LLOYS TO GIVE SHARE HOLDERS VALUE BY 2012 . HE HAS NOW LEFT .

Good riddance, maybe.

that MUPPET m king says 4 more years of bad years .
well let me tell him that 18 months before the next election
cameron will say THE UK IS NOW GREAT AGAIN AND GIVE MONEY AWAY .

All banks are down on the Greek bail out news.

it has very little to do with greece it very bad management at all uk banks .
they are no better than a labour .i am just glad that investors can now see there needs a clear out of these top bankers by name only to be removed .
the list of bad ceo is getting longer
daniels fred diamond hester now the ceo of lloys and loads more

So your judgement of CEO's is more important than default of sovereign debt and that is the reason for the weakness in the banks sp's?

yes . the ceo of companys over the last 10 years are very poor .
they are only interested in a quick profit for them selves and do not give
a sod about the companys they work for .
and they only get the jobs because of closed school jobs .
good people can not get in no matter how good they are it is a closed shop

Merrill Lynch broker note out yesterday:
"In our view, there is a lot of negative speculation around the Lloyds strategy day. People are expecting significant write-downs as the new CEO boosted provisioning in Ireland, UK CRE and UK mortgages. This combined with broader expectations around the sale of Widows, project Verde separation costs and a further restructuring charge have hit the confidence in the book value and sent the shares spiralling to 48p.

In our recent report Back to basics (8 June 2011), we set out our expectations for cost cuts at 1bn and a significant stress test designed to give some confidence in trough book value. The 1bn of cost cuts was consistent with the results from investors polled at the start of June. With 1bn of cost savings we estimate that Lloyds could still generate 9p of EPS by 2013 (8p ex 800 branches), but would be left with a cost income ratio of 47%. If we increase the cost saves to 2bn then this would boost the headline EPS to 10.2p and give a cost income ratio of 42.5%.

In our view investors are generally accepting that the Lloyds franchise is capable of generating an ROE > COE, justifying a multiple above book value. The problem is that at the moment there is no confidence in the book value. If management can stand up at the end of June, not imply big hits to book then the shares should recover quickly to 56p (the 1Q11 T/NAV). If management set out a credible plan to improve returns then (as in 2010) the shares should be capable of justifying a multiple above book value.
With the market underweight and expectations extremely low, we reiterate our stance that people are taking a risk being underweight ahead of the investor day and with the stock trading at 1x our bear case EPS of 48p, we reiterate buy."

merrill must want out then