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Bank stress test release rejected
Fri 22 May,
LONDON (Reuters) - Revealing the results of confidential government studies into the financial health of major British banks could cause uncertainty in financial markets, a Treasury spokesman said on Friday.
The Treasury said on Friday that it had rejected a request made under freedom of information legislation by news agency Bloomberg for publication of stress tests conducted by the Financial Services Authority earlier in the year.
"The information was withheld on the grounds of a number of exemptions, including that disclosure of such information may lead to uncertainty in the financial markets, either in relation to specific institutions or more generally," the spokesman said.
So far Barclays (BARC.L) is the only major bank to have said that it passed the FSA's stress-testing process, despite others such as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) being tested around the same time.
The Financial Times said the stress-testing included looking at whether banks would have enough capital to survive a 50 percent crash in house prices and a two-year recession.
An FSA spokesman said it had also turned down a freedom of information request from Bloomberg. "If we did release any specific information on stress testing it would be as an announcement to the market via (press release news wire) RNS, so it's not something I can comment on at this stage," said Joseph Eyre, press officer at the Financial Services Authority.
The United States has already published the results of its stress tests, saying it would boost financial market confidence -- a position supported on Friday by the Dutch financial market regulator AFM.
"Everybody is talking about a level playing field. There is an increasingly unlevel playing field between investors in American financial stocks and in European financial stocks," said AFM chairman Hans Hoogervorst.
"Investors in European financial stocks remain much more in the dark and there has not been -- and I don't think it's going to be very likely -- transparency in stress tests in the banking sector in Europe," Hoogervorst told a meeting of the Financial Crisis Advisory Group, which he co-chairs.
"This pressure is mainly exerted by bankers and ministers of finance, who are all bankers now, and obviously they have no natural interest in transparency," he said.
Midas: Steer clear of Lloyds cash call
Midas is edited by Joanne Hart -- 24 May 2009
Last spring, HBOS was struggling so it asked shareholders for help. The bank had made so many bad lending decisions that it needed 4bn to put it on an even keel.
Many shareholders bought the story, expecting the company to prosper. Instead, the bank went from bad to worse, ending up in the arms of Lloyds TSB.
Until then, Lloyds shareholders were doing relatively well as the bank was not saddled with bad debts. HBOS changed all that and the combined business, Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), had to go cap in hand to the Government. It received more than 10bn in cash and the Government took a 44% stake
The Government then gave it a further 4bn and in return received preference shares that gave it a dividend of 480m a year.
Even that was not enough and earlier this year LBG applied to join the Government's Asset Protection Scheme. The details are still being hammered out but the Government will effectively insure 260bn of bad debts, most of which were made by HBOS.
In return, the Government has told Lloyds to redeem the preference shares - in other words pay back its 4bn. The bank still needs that money, so it is asking shareholders to stump up.
This time, chief executive Eric Daniels wants to raise the cash through a placing and compensatory open offer. This is like a rights issue but it is quicker.
Investors will receive documents this weekend offering them about six new shares for every ten they hold, at 38.4p per share. The offer closes at midday on June 5, so anyone wanting the extra shares must act fast.
LBG has 2.8m shareholders who own an average of 550 shares each. They have three options - take up the full entitlement, some of it, or do nothing. The first option would cost about 130 for the average of 340 new shares.
Those who do not take up the full amount might receive a small windfall. Any shares not taken up by shareholders will be sold in the open market at a discount to the prevailing-price but at a premium to the 38.4p offer price. Any excess will be handed to investors.
When this placing was hammered out with the Government, LBG shares were 42p. Today the price is 68.6p. If it stays at this level till the offer closes and the shares not taken up are sold at 60p, non-subscribers will receive about 20p per share - 60p minus 38.4p, plus a little for costs.
In practice, the shares are likely to drift lower over the next two weeks but some small compensatory payment is still a possibility.
So what should shareholders do? At first glance, investors may be tempted to buy the new shares as they are heavily discounted. But this is not the best way to make a judgment. The most important point to consider is the group's prospects. Is LBG going to do well over the coming year and beyond or not? Will the board manage to knit together Lloyds TSB and HBOS to make a great and powerful British bank or will HBOS simply drag its new parent down?
The early indications have not been good. Lloyds TSB did not realise what it was taking on when it bought HBOS and it has been forced to reassess its position repeatedly. Chairman Sir Victor Blank, once a darling of the City, decided last week to quit early after consistent criticism from key shareholders.
Another factor affecting the group's future is the EU. The bank admitted last week that it could be forced to sell off parts of the business if the European Commission does not approve the HBOS takeover.
It is also possible that the shares will take a beating over the next fortnight and fall below 38.4p. In that case, most investors would not take up their entitlements. The Government will buy any shares that no one wants so, at worst, it would end up owning 65 per cent.
Midas verdict: When HBOS asked shareholders to subscribe for the rights last year, the market price was 495p and the rights were 275p. When Lloyds first bid for HBOS its shares were about 300p and HBOS was about 200p. Shareholders have had a torrid time and the outlook is uncertain-Unless they have a real yearning to own more bank shares, they are best off waiting for a compensatory cheque in late June.
Lloyds to auction HBOS company stakes
Llloyds Banking Group has stepped up its efforts to offload its shareholding in more than 60 of Britain's largest companies including coffee chain CaffNero and David Lloyd Leisure, the health and fitness group.
UBS, the investment bank, is working on plans to auction the stakes, inherited from HBOS. The combined value of the investments have more than halved to 600m since last June. The auction process could begin in July, City sources told The Sunday Telegraph.
A number of potential financial bidders are understood to have expressed an interest in the stakes, which range from Polypipe, a pipe manufacturer, to Sunseeker, the yacht builder, as well as a number of smaller companies such as Aberdeen-based oil industry specialist Red Spider Technology and Leaseway Vehicle Rental.
The integrated finance division's larger real estate investments, including retirement home builder McCarthy & Stone and Crest Nicholson, are not part of the planned UBS auction.
Neither is the bank's 8pc stake in Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group, which is held outside the division. Sir Philip said on Sunday that he had no plans to buy back the stake. "They are quite happy with me. Why should I buy it?" he said.
Lloyds has wanted to sell the equity stakes since it acquired HBOS in September and has sought advice from both
NM Rothschild and UBS. HBOS had previously paid UBS to assess private investor interest to acquire part of the portfolio.
The sale process concerns some of Lloyds' largest corporate customers, which had relied upon HBOS to provide a wide range of debt and equity banking services. Some had HBOS executives on their boards. Eric Daniels, Lloyds chief executive, has said there would be no "major wrenches" as part of the sale process. "We are going to be very careful," he said.
Last week, Lloyds announced that the former HBOS integrated finance, joint ventures and fund investment operations would "no longer be open to new business''.
From The Times -- May 23, 2009
Black horse shares can ride out storm.
But should investors take their little purse of monies and run? Hindsight shows that investors would have been better off ignoring the received wisdom on previous occasions, and shunning previous calls. Thoughts now might turn to piling in when everybody seems to be wanting you to do the opposite.
Why should investors subscribe for the new shares? Because it is possible to see recovery coming, and having endured so much financial pain it seems right to grab as much of the upside as possible. You could take 250 now. But if things continue to settle, that 250 could become 500 in as little as 12 months.
The Government is doing shareholders a substantial financial favour. The 4 billion raised by Lloyds will be used to repay preference shares, bought by the Government, that were issued only relatively recently. Because the preference shares are counted as debt, their existence weakens the Lloyds balance sheet. Shares aka equity count on the other side of the ledger so an equity-for-debt substitution does the books a double favour. Lloyds, moreover, is on the hook to pay 480 million a year in dividend interest on the preference shares. If they are replaced with ordinary shares, that drain disappears. It also means that the company will resume paying dividends on ordinary shares sooner rather than later. And while the Government is reclaiming its 4 billion of preference-share cash, it is reinvesting nearly half that sum back by buying new ordinary shares. In the process, it is set to maintain its 43 per cent shareholding in the bank.
If Lloyds can keep its act together, it will emerge as a powerful player in the financial services sector. That brings the risk it will become complacent, and idly fail to win the big operating cost advantages that are in the offing. In time, also, competition authorities may seek to dilute the monopolistic power it might enjoy. But that is not something shareholders necessarily have to fear, especially if division comes through demerger. Who knows, the black horse bank, a lumbering old faithful, could deliver one, or more, lively foals.
There is, of course, no certainty that new dosh invested will grow in value, while there is a calming certainty about taking cash when it is offered. Lloyds continues to mutter darkly about the state of the lending markets, and its bad debts, while doubt hangs over the exact cost, and extent, of the government-backed debt insurance scheme the crucial government asset protection scheme, or, to use its alarming acronym, the Gaps. Meanwhile, European authorities might throw a spanner in the works with rulings about unreasonable and unallowable, state aid. And the resignation this week of Sir Victor Blank, the chairman, while not unduly worrying, is hardly an indication of internal management strength.
And OK, so the banking sector recommendations in this column over the past 18 months are not blemish-free. It has been suggested that investors should support cash calls in the past, and it is true that shares could have been bought at substantially better subsequent prices. That said, analysis in this space at the time of the Lloyds-HBOS link, which suggested the deal was good for HBOS as it ensured its survival and bad for Lloyds as it saddled the black horse with a beastly burden stands the test of time. And as long as the banks do not go belly up, time may also prove that investors were right to provide them with the help. There was always a social responsibility to be met. Eventually, it may bring sound financial reward. Subscribe in full.