Lloyds ends exclusive talks with Co-op over branch sale


Lloyd's Banking Group has thrown open the sale of its 632 "Project Verde" branches by ending its exclusivity agreement with the Co-op. The decision could be a precursor to floating the portfolio or selling it to Lord Levene's NBNK.

1st Quarter Results.

Further strengthening the Group's balance sheet
· Core tier 1 capital ratio further increased to 11.0 per cent, an increase of 20 basis points since 31 December 2011
· 2012 term funding plan now completed; remain open to modest further issuance as opportunities arise
· Total wholesale funding further reduced to £231.3 billion, down 8 per cent compared to 31 December 2011 and 24 per cent (£71.8 billion) since end Q1 2011; wholesale funding with less than one year maturity reduced to £91.4 billion, down by 41 per cent since March 2011 (£154.6 billion as at 31 March 2011)
· Strong primary liquidity portfolio of £106.4 billion (31 December 2011: £94.8 billion)
· Maturity profile of wholesale funding further improved, with 60 per cent with a maturity of greater than one year
· Improved Group loan to deposit ratio of 130 per cent (31 December 2011: 135 per cent), reaching the 2014 strategic target set in June of last year and meeting guidance more than two years early; core loan to deposit ratio of 105 per cent

Ongoing progress in reshaping the business and reducing risk
· Substantial non-core asset reduction in the quarter to £128.3 billion, representing 13 per cent of total assets. This is a £65.4 billion, or 34 per cent reduction since the beginning of 2011; down £12.4 billion in the first quarter, and £44.6 billion since end Q1 2011
· Continued momentum in deposit growth: customer relationship deposits (excluding repos) increased 2 per cent in quarter and 6 per cent since end Q1 2011 demonstrating the success of our multi-brand strategy
· Impairment charge at £1.7 billion reduced by 31 per cent compared to Q4 2011 and 36 per cent compared to Q1 2011; full year 2012 guidance unchanged reflecting unaltered expectations for the UK economy

Further simplification savings delivered; costs reduced
· Simplification annual run-rate cost savings increased to £352 million (31 December 2011: £242 million)
· Total costs reduced by 7 per cent compared to Q1 2011 primarily driven by simplification and synergy savings

Resilient core business performance despite effects of subdued economy
· Return on risk-weighted assets increased by 10 basis points to 2.65 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2011
· Core underlying1 income reduced by 11 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2011, principally reflecting subdued lending demand leading to lower core asset volumes, lower non-core assets and higher wholesale funding costs
· Core banking net interest margin was relatively resilient in the quarter, declining only 2 basis points, compared to Q4 2011, to 2.32 per cent, with the benefits of asset repricing and improved funding mix partially offsetting higher wholesale funding costs (31 March 2011: 2.47 per cent)
· Full year net interest margin outlook unchanged



Group profit in line with our expectations
· Resilient profitability due to further reduction in costs and impairment charge: Core underlying1 combined businesses profit before tax and fair value unwind reduced by only 2 per cent to £1,603 million
· Return on risk-weighted assets improved to 0.59 per cent from 0.23 per cent in the first quarter of 2011
· Statutory profit before tax of £288 million, including a further PPI provision of £375 million for costs of customer contact and redress given the increase in the volume of complaints being received

Further investment in core franchise improving customer propositions and driving targeted growth:
· Further improvements to Retail's branch infrastructure and internet offerings, including over 100 Lloyds TSB branches refurbished since November 2011, improvements to Lloyds TSB Money Manager, and international online payments capability
· Continued successful development of multi-brand strategy, good term deposit growth and over 750,000 customers now signed up to Halifax Savers Prize Draw
· We continue to focus on supporting the UK housing market and in particular helping first time buyers get onto the property ladder. In the first quarter we have completed more than £1.3 billion of new lending to over 11,500 first-time buyers
· On track to achieve our target reduction to 1.3 complaints per 1,000 accounts by the year end
· Advanced £3.25 billion of gross new lending to SMEs in the first quarter; on track to fulfil commitment of £12 billion of gross new lending to SMEs in 2012 and positive SME net lending
· SME net lending growth of 4 per cent year-on-year against market contraction of 4 per cent; supported over 30,000 start ups in the first quarter towards commitment to support at least 100,000 in 2012
· Continued improvement in Wholesale Rates and debt capital markets performance
· Good progress with development of new and enhanced product propositions in Wealth and Insurance in advance of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) implementation

Confident in delivery of financial guidance; guidance for reduction of non-core assets and loan to deposit ratio increased
· Further progress in first quarter supports confidence in delivery of 2012 financial guidance, despite the challenging macro-economic environment
· Given substantial progress in the year to date, 2012 non-core asset reduction guidance now increased to at least £30 billion from at least £25 billion and we are expecting to reach our 2014 target in 2013
· Now targeting a long-term Group loan to deposit ratio of 120 per cent, and assuming a continuation of current market conditions we expect to achieve this target in the next twelve months
· Remain confident that our medium-term financial targets are achievable over time

the CEO statement is worthless the man as been there now 18 months and he is less than useless . and should be sacked .

the up date was terrible profits down more w/d .
the board need help .

Impairment charges were down 36% and Net Int Income held up pretty well.

and profits down 28m from 2011.
and no divs for at least 4 more years
and consolidation to come of 1 for 10 .

Intersting that 25% of recent claims for PPI mis-selling by claims management companies are fraudulent, as they are trying to claim for compensation on policies never even held by customers of Lloyds Group.

Some of those claim companies are going to the wall... They deserve it, I wonder why they are still on TV.

Investec has reiterated its buy recommendation and 40p target price for Lloyds Banking Group following the bank's well-received first-quarter results on Tuesday morning.

"In the recent past, financial updates from Lloyds often sounded like a desperate plea for help - but no more," Investec said in a research note.

"If Antonio [Chief Executive] still needs cheering up after the 6% share price rebound of the past eight days then the underlying trends visible in today's numbers could be just the tonic," the broker said.

possible offer for Scottish Widows by Duke hedge fund in the region of £5-6billion would see the sp take-off.

one of only a few gainers today.

nice to learn directors are buying, perhaps some good news coming soon.

the ceo wants enough 6 years to turn the bank around he will retire in 3 years
lloyds banking group

greece of all the very rich greeks they pay no taxes and most reside in monaco .
the most evilalist place on the planet .
that is where all goverments should close there borders and stop them robbing
countrys of taxes and take away there passports that is the only way to treat those thiefs and crooks . but alas all gov are are apart of them. the greeks and the rest of the EU should put down there tools and strike .bring down the rich bg time

What is specific to Lloyds?
It has been falling faster than other banks.

traders suspended investigation into libor fixing.

aren't their PR people amazingly useless no press release about the suspension of traders in libor fixing.

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Starting to look interesting. Another 3p perhaps...........(down, of course!)