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.

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.

LLOYDS BANKING GROUP UPDATE ON CAPITAL POSITION

Lloyds Banking Group (Group) has been informed as to the outcome of the Prudential Regulation Authority's (PRA) considerations in relation to its capital position.

The Group expects to meet its additional capital requirements through its strongly capital generative core business, continued progress in executing the Group's customer focused strategy and further capital accretive non-core asset disposals.

These additional capital requirements are expected to be met without recourse to further equity issuance or the utilisation of additional contingent capital securities.

We continue to be confident in our capital position and as previously disclosed expect our estimated pro-forma fully loaded CRD IV core tier 1 ratio to be above 9 per cent by the end of 2013 and above 10 per cent by the end of 2014.

Group Chief Executive António Horta-Osório said:
"We are pleased with the substantial progress being made in the delivery of our customer focused strategy. Our strong capital position enables the Group to actively support growth and lending in the UK economy as well as delivering sustainable results for our shareholders."

- END -

Lloyds says won't need to issue new equity, CoCos

LONDON | Wed May 22, 2013 7:18am BST
(Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group said on Wednesday that it would be able to meet new capital requirements without having to issue new equity or contingent capital, having been informed of its position by Britain's financial regulator.

Lloyds said it was confident in its capital position and re-affirmed previous targets for its core tier 1 ratio.

StockMarketWire.com
Lloyds Banking Group is raising around £450m, gross, through a placing of 77 million St James's Place shares at £5.80 apiece.

Settlement of the placing will take place on 29 May and on completion Lloyds will hold 110 million St James's Place shares - approximately 21% of the total.

Lloyds above threshold after St James's Place sale

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) shares sliced through the threshold 61p level on Friday, surprising analysts who had lauded its well timed sale of a 15% stake in wealth manager St James's Place on Wednesday just before the recent market rout.

In line with its strategy to shrink its balance sheet and concentrate on its core UK retail and commercial bank, the deal has added a further £500 million to Lloyds' capital, raising the core Tier 1 ratio by an additional 0.16 percentage points on top of the 0.15 percentage points accomplished in March. Its tier 1 capital ratio will now be 12.3%, which is well ahead of target.