RNS LLOY will repay the final 3.5 billion tranche of funds borrowed under the ECB LTRO next week things are on the move positively, we may be able to look forward to resumption of dividend payments sooner than some sceptics think.

LLOY AGM next Thursday 16th May.

LLOYDS BANKING GROUP ANNOUNCES BOARD CHANGE

The Board of Lloyds Banking Group announces that its Chairman since September 2009, Sir Winfried Bischoff, will be retiring no later than the shareholders meeting in May 2014. The exact date will be subject to the appointment of his successor.

Commencing immediately Anthony Watson, Senior Independent Director, will lead the search for the Chairman's successor.

Sir Win said:

"Lloyds Banking Group has, over the past four years, made significant progress in its goal to become a strong, efficient, UK-focused retail and commercial bank."

"Whilst clearly some challenges remain, the performance of the Group is well on track. Indeed, in many areas, it is ahead of plan. This gives me every confidence in the future success of the Group and it is therefore a good time to start the search for my successor."

60p.

Lovely!!!

not before time!

why is the AGM being held in Edinburgh again, we thought LLOY was incorporated in England?

Exane BNP Paribas Outperform 59.95 59.37 - 65.00 Reiterates

Credit Suisse Neutral 59.89 48.00 48.00 Reiterates

sp >60p news coming?

LLOY to pay dividend asap.

Prospects improve for UK sale of Lloyds bank stake

EDINBURGH | Thu May 16, 2013 3:41pm BST

(Reuters) - Britain's largest retail bank Lloyds (LLOY.L) expects to return to profit this year, increasing the government's chances of selling its stake before the next general election in 2015.

Prime Minister David Cameron is keen to show that Britain's part-nationalised banks are recovering from the financial crisis and a sale of the 39 percent stake in Lloyds, at a profit, would allow him to claim at least partial success.

Lloyds is further ahead than Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), 81 percent-owned by the government, in the battle to plug property-related losses and give taxpayers back the tens of billions of public funds used to bail the banks out in 2008.

"We expect us to return to profitability this year and to grow our core business, to realise our full potential to deliver strong, stable and sustainable returns for you, the shareholders, and to allow UK taxpayers' investment in the group to be repaid," Chief Executive Antonio Horta-Osorio told shareholders at the bank's annual general meeting in Edinburgh.

He said the bank would resume paying dividends "as soon as we are able".

Good volume this morning - 80p looks achievable and interesting chart wise.

Now you tell us! ;o)

One more penny and I am at breakeven. Who would have thought it a year ago?
Presumably once the government sell their stake, the trackers & pension funds will become more interested?

I'm actually in the money and am happy to hold now.

Not quite there with RBS though!

Think Lloyds should buy back some of the shares the government own, as a safety net they could but them back and lower the amount of shares available, that would really make this Phoenix fly.

Crikey!....did I see 63p for a second???

in the blue with rbs......lovely.,.

"Lloyds shares' 130% rise in the last twelve months has taken them over the Treasury's minimum "break-even" price for a sale of its 39% stake of 61.2p. Hence, it is quite possible we will see a large slug of the shares potentially on the block before the end of the year and possibly within the next couple of months, The Sunday Telegraph's Questor team says. However, if the lender does meet its Chief Executive's expectation that it will 'obviously' be a high dividend-paying stock in the future then it seems reasonable to hold on to the shares despite the potential 'overhang' of the government's holdings, Questor adds."

alternative strategy would be a share buy back scheme using funds received from sale of branches/ other assets, 70 billion shares in issue, tax payers shareholding nearly 30 billion shares, difficult to think in terms of a high dividend paying stock while this remains the case.