Government is expected to complete its sale of shares in Lloyds this week.

Deutsche Bank today:
"We upgrade Lloyds from Hold to Buy driven by 4 areas:
1) following 4 quarters of successive reductions, NII is now growing;
2) though below the line charges are not over (we forecast another £1bn of PPI + £1bn for other redress) the worst should be past and we expect statutory earnings to trend to u/l by 2019,
3) Dividends: the strong 1Q17 CET1 of 14.3% and maintained guidance of 13% req means that Lloyds should be in a position to pay 4.65p dividends in 2017e, rising to 5.9p in 2019e, or consider buybacks.
4) Valuation: Lloyds is trading at a 1.26x TNAV for 6-7% yield and 12.3% RoTE vs. Europe at 1.13x TNAV, 10% RoTE and 5-6% div yield. We think the stock too cheap, TP 79p. BUY"

Reuters reports that the sale of the Government's remaining stake in Lloyds will be announced tomorrow.

According to BBC news this evening, HMG sold it's remaining shares today, so onwards & upwards......hopefully!

Though, according to Reuters:
"Britain is set to sell its remaining stake in Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) on Wednesday, making the lender the first to re-emerge from British state ownership in a symbolic step for the country's recovering banking sector.

The sale will draw a line under one of the largest bailouts from the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. This involved Lloyds, Britain's biggest retail lender, being rescued after an ill-fated government-brokered takeover of rival HBOS.

The takeover of HBOS in 2008 caused Lloyds to suffer more than 25 billion pounds in losses and the bank's subsequent rescue cost the British government more than 20 billion pounds ($26 billion) and left it with a 43 percent state shareholding.

This holding has gradually been sold back into the market over and now represents less than 1 percent of Lloyds shares. About half of the 137 billion pounds of direct cash injected into Britain's five bailed-out banks has so far been recovered.

Britain will make at least a 500 million pound profit from its bailout of Lloyds, the bank's chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said last week."

Also Reuters - Lloyds new era begins as government sells off final shares

Britain has sold its last remaining stake in Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L), making the lender the first to re-emerge from British state ownership in a symbolic step for the country's recovering banking sector.

The sale draws a line under one of the largest bailouts from the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. This involved Lloyds, Britain's biggest retail lender, being rescued after an ill-fated government-brokered takeover of rival HBOS.

more.....

António Horta Osório interview on Bloomberg shortly.

11 month high @71.37p

Nice to see the sp increase, it should continue to do so in the coming years as PPI drops off and interest rates slowly rise. I hold LLOY for the divi which should also increase over time.

I agree with that.....barring any nasty surprises within the banking industry. I see the US are trying to push for less regulation within their banking industry......amazing how short some memories can be!

A link to the earlier interview :- Lloyds CEO Says Still 'Much More to Do' at Lender

slightly late in the day, but have sold HFD from my sipp and put most of that money into topping up LLOY

Investec comment today:
"As widely anticipated, the UK Government has now completed the selldown of its £20.3bn (43.3%) “investment” made during 2009, to zero. As discussed in our report, Glad it’s all over? (16 May), in practical terms, this immediately removes the technical drag on the share price of Government share sales of up to 15% of the average daily volume. We do not anticipate any consequential change in strategy. Lloyds is already a “recovered” bank with significantly enhanced dividend-paying capacity. Let the good times roll!

We believe that Lloyds’ strategy and outlook is set fair, irrespective of its evolving ownership or management. In balance sheet terms, we continue to see it as a “no growth” bank, albeit this conceals an ongoing positive mix effect as it rebalances the composition of its lending portfolios. We see the acquisition of MBNA, expected to complete in Q2 2017, as a clear positive in this regard.

Lloyds shares have enjoyed a tailwind over the past ten months as consensus expectations in relation to NIM, impairment and DPS have started to catch up to a (pretty glorious) reality. However, following a 10% beat vs u/l PBT consensus in Q1 2017 we see this upgrade cycle as “unfinished business”. Our EPS forecasts of 5.5-6.7p through 2017-2019e remain ahead of Bloomberg consensus (5.3-6.5p) while our DPS forecasts of 4.5-5.5p through 2017-2019e are seemingly further ahead; Bloomberg consensus has 3.8-4.7p.

Lloyds trades on 1.2x Q1 2017 tNAV for ROTEs of 10-11% through 2017-2019e, supplemented by a prospective dividend yield of 6.4% in 2017e, rising to 7.8% by 2019e. Our Buy recommendation and 75p target price are both reaffirmed.

Back in the channel.

What the English channel?..sorry I digress -)

A new channel has been pointed out to me!

Stan,

A stumbling block for little englanders.

(:-(

Plenty of those around Fred as we know.

Although I've been following LLOY, Barclays and other banks I just can't bring myself to trust them enough to trade them anymore.

Stan,

I have too many Barc and too few Lloyds.

Sold and bought the latter, but expect (hope) for at least 75p and ?78p in short term.

Bought a few SBs in Barc today. Not sure, hoping on monthly charts 280, eps would support it, but a juicy yield would be better.

Yes difficult to assess.