g
seems unlikely to me to get above 130sh tomorrow Lol
and for that reason i am out.
regards and good luck
jkd

thanks i am in profit today - may check out or hold for tomorrow for more - gl also

profit now that is!! not earlier today - knew it would come good!!

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

all trend and peer data point to blue tomorrow!!!

With Antonio Horta-Osorio suffering from 'fatigue', Lloyds' uncertainty has only just begun

Harry Wilson, 18:14, Wednesday 2 November 2011

On Tuesday morning Antonio Horta-Osorio walked into Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY.L - news) 's London headquarters for what some now fear could be the last time.

Later in the day he had been expected to appear in front of a joint House of Commons and House of Lords committee alongside the chief executives of Britain's three other major banks.

At 3:45pm the Parliamentary hearing got under way, but the Lloyds chief was nowhere to be seen. Chairman Peter Lilley MP explained that Mr Horta-Osorio would not be attending for "personal reasons". Few thought any more of it.

However, behind the scenes, Mr Horta-Osorio, 47, had suffered a bout of what sources close to Lloyds have described as "extreme fatigue" and on Wednesday morning the bank informed the market that its chief executive had taken a "temporary leave of absence" and would be replaced on an interim basis by finance director Tim Tookey.

For Lloyds, which is 41pc owned by the taxpayer, the timing of Mr Horta-Osorio's absence could hardly be worse.

The to-do list for Mr Tookey could hardly be longer and more demanding. At its top is the highly-sensitive disposal of 632 branches, the so-called "Project Verde" sale, which will see the bank decide by the end of the year whether to continue with the spin-off of the business to a private buyer or to begin focusing on a 2013 stock market flotation.

Running a close second to this is a controversial cost-reduction programme that will see Britain's largest retail bank take the total number of jobs lost since its state bail-out to about 40,000.

In addition, the bank must continue with the run down of tens of billions of pounds in non-core assets as well as the refinancing of about 150bn in debt due to mature within the next 12 months.

And all of this must be done against a backdrop of working out how to implement new regulations, an ongoing eurozone financial crisis, and the increasing likelihood of a downturn in the UK economy.

While Lloyds says it hopes Mr Horta-Osorio will be well enough to return to his post before the end of the year, the City is concerned at the prospect his absence could be more prolonged, or even permanent.

"You have got to wonder whether he is up to what is a very stressful job with a massive workload. My concern is that if he doesn't return then Lloyds faces another period of uncertainty that could be very damaging for the business," said one London-based banks analyst.

Speculation has already begun over who might replace Mr Horta-Osorio should he decide he is unable to continue in the job.

Mr Tookey had already tendered his resignation in September and is working out his notice until he joins insurer Friends Life in February.

Ian Gordon, banks analyst at Evolution Securities, said Lloyds should look at handing the chief executive role to group operations director Mark Fisher.

"Mark is a very safe pair of hands with a proven track record. Moreover, he is not tarnished by the previous regime's mistakes," said Mr Gordon.

However, appointing an internal candidate could prove problematic. For a start, investors would be likely to ask why, after having considered internal candidates last year to replace Eric Daniels, the bank now thought less than 12 months later it could hand the reins over to an existing employee.

Assuming the bank were forced to look externally it is not obvious who it might hire. Finding Mr Horta-Osorio took several months and there are few easily identifiable replacements.

"They would have to start from scratch. I think they made a very high-quality appointment with Antonio, but there weren't many other candidates out there. I think they could really struggle if they had to run the process again," said one banks analyst.

Appointing a replacement would be just the start of Lloyds' problems. Almost immediately after accepting the job last year, Portuguese Mr Horta-Osorio began hiring senior colleagues from Santander UK, which he had run since 2006, developing a tight executive committee of close associates.

Antonio Lorenzo, head of the bank's wealth and international business; Juan Colombas, chief risk officer; Matt Young, corporate affairs director, as well as several others, are all long-time colleagues of Mr Horta-Osorio.

"Realistically, it will be difficult for a newcomer to fit in as this is very much a management team created in Antonio's image, so any changeover could be very disruptive," said one banking industry observer.

For Sir Win Bischoff, chairman of Lloyds, the hope remains that Mr Horta-Osorio will recover speedily and things can continue as before. The worry for Lloyds is the uncertainty may have only just begun.

hi dc - nice article you posted - i spoke to some tonight before i left for home and basically many are not worried by ho's absence but see it as a blip - i can tell you why - it is because ho did not run this himself - unbeknown to many even including some other analyst he has a core team of exec directors running lloy some of which he head hunted himself - previous colleagues - on this information i am letting this run tomorrow as expect blue

and did some more research on volumes - a large amount were placed by super computers not even touched by human hands as such - this could still go either way tomorrow but still my opinion is blue gla

btw the core team of execs that run lloy is 10 people

typo - sorry it is 12 execs who are in charge of individual areas of the bank! the ones ho brought in were mainly from Santander - only pain in the arse project right now apparently is Project Verde which is the sale of 632 branches - as some bidders have pulled out and are most likely now to be spun off as a seperate business on the stock market - other than that considering is pretty stable! lol

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Good luck gibby.

Sounds like the company have run him into the ground. Whats going to change if he rests up and returns to work? Or is the job to big for him?

Still cant see it going much lower

Lloyds boss Antio Horta-Osio steps down after stress takes its toll

Was he British?

Going underground.

excellent - still good volumes here - set up nicely for blue today imo
yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

btw he is not british

lol mitzy

30s today - fill ye boooooooooooooooooootttttttttttttttttttssssssssssssssssssssssss
lol
its a classic today again

BLUE !