Lloyds Bank strengthens dividend case with profit jump

(Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group's (LLOY.L) pretax profit jumped 22 percent in the first quarter as costs fell and margins improved, strengthening the bank's plan to pay its first dividend since it was rescued during the financial crisis. Lloyds, which is 25 percent-owned by the government, said on Thursday it made an underlying profit of 1.8 billion pounds in the first quarter, helped by a 5 percent fall in costs from a year ago to 2.3 billion pounds.

The bank needs permission from the Bank of England to restart its dividend payments and said it would apply in the second half of the year to restart payouts.

Investec Buy 78.67 75.36 85.00 85.00 Reiterates

Knocking on 16 Bob Harry.

Lovely! I wonder where the sp will be when the first divi date is announced? Long term hold for me.

Me too - RBS seems to be on it's shirt tails this morning.

Completion of Acquisition

Aberdeen Asset Management PLC ("The Company")
Completion of the acquisition of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership Infrastructure fund management business

2 May 2014

Aberdeen Asset Management PLC ("Aberdeen" or the "Company") is pleased to confirm that following close of business on 1 May 2014 it has completed the acquisition of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership's Infrastructure fund management business. With the completion of the acquisition of the Infrastructure fund management business, Aberdeen has now completed the acquisition of Scottish Widows Partnership Group Limited and its related private equity and infrastructure fund management businesses from Lloyds Banking Group plc ("Lloyds") announced on 18 November 2013.

In accordance with the Sale and Purchase Agreement, the final deferred top-up payment to Lloyds has been reduced from £39.4 million as announced on 1 April 2014 to £38.3 to reflect the completion of the Infrastructure acquisition. This will be payable to Lloyds at the end of a 12 month period following completion and Aberdeen is entitled, at its sole option, to make this payment either in cash or by the issue of additional new ordinary shares to Lloyds. The total consideration for the Acquisition including the deferred top-up payment is approximately £550 million.

Application has been made to The UK Listing Authority and The London Stock Exchange for a listing of 5,952,000 ordinary shares of 10 pence as consideration for the Infrastructure fund management business acquisition, to trade on The London Stock Exchange and to be admitted to the Official List. These shares shall rank pari passu with the existing issued ordinary shares of the Company and it is expected that admission will commence at 8.00am today, Friday 2 May, 2014.

There's 16 Bob Harry.

Antonio H-O very low profile, but getting the job done! £1 by Xmas?

We can but hope!

RBS made my day/week and probably month.

What do people think of the TSB float is it worth a dabble. Sorry OT.

If its priced like the RMG offer - then I'm in!

Wait for the prospectus I guess.

Before they split it off from Lloyds I would have closed my account and swapped back over, if it had made me leave the main named bank. Now it seems to be virtually identically acceptable. So I don't reckon they will have lost too many customers.

I think the float should be a good runner.

Off-Topic:

I definitely don't feel the same about the forthcoming SAGA IPO, which I think will be a flop. That's despite all of the wrinklies like me signing up to receive all info' on it and registering too. Doing all of this sent a message to SAGA but there has been no obligation on our part and I don't think it's an accurate version of the real message they need to know. Of course, I could be wrong but I'd put my £5 on it.

So is LLOY to float part of our Bank and will we get the value of the float (ie in our pockets?),,,,rather than the City that is exercising that old chesnut "Churn"

Seems to me that after the float, then LLOY will be worth less by the value of the Float+Fees, which will be tens of Millions...so where is the Benefit.

Better to leave the "TSB" the Retail Bank and LLOY the everything else.... so by splitting we can see clearly which is staid and which is struggling.. . . . er, IMHO.

SAGA, FWIW:- As this is well respected by the retired, I imagine they might buy blocks of shares - so the matter is this: Will the City undervalue it, or recon that the retired will over-pay? My money's on the latter. Saga might become a powerhouse, but with so many cautious shareholders, the Execs will be similarly minded - and one suspects there will be little in the way of rapid progress . . . what can they do that they don't already? (... I'm excluding running towards Risky investments, although that's where money is made, provided it's someone else's money....).

...I rest my case...

JP Morgan Cazenove Overweight 79.62 79.62 95.00 95.00 Reiterates

Nomura Buy 79.62 79.62 89.00 89.00 Upgrades

What the hell happened at the AGM?

It sounded to me like they were paying more attention to their bonuses getting passed and not very specific about the divi being restarted.....but then what should we have expected.

I'd suggest a direct correlation between bonus and share price.

Results of AGM

Following the annual general meeting held today at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre in Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group plc announces that all the resolutions put to shareholders were passed by the requisite majorities. Resolution 21 being passed by a majority of at least 66% as over 50% of the total shares were represented at the annual general meeting. Resolutions 22 to 27 (inclusive) were passed as special resolutions. The results of the polls are as follows:

more....

Barclays Capital Overweight 75.18 74.81 - 90.00 Reiterates

Lloyds to float TSB next week

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) has brought forward the listing of its TSB subsidiary to next week, as investor interest in IPOs starts to cool, with Saga shares priced at the low end of expectations and FatFace pulling its float altogether.

The bank is expected to float only 25% of TSB and to sell shares for less than current book value.

Lloyds will need to sell soon as it will enter a close period in the run-up to its results on 31 July. August is out because of the holiday season and a sale in September would be complicated by the vote for independence in Scotland, where the bank is registered.