Ah, I see now that they are probably going to spin off the branches under the TSB brand. As you say Stan, an IPO the last option.

From this week's IC Trading page:
"LLOY share price enjoys good underpinning on it's daily chart, says Zak Mir. It is well above it's 200 DMA at 43p, as well as it's rising lower trend channel at 48p. My reading of the set-up is that 60p should be seen over the next 2-3 months, especially as long as the support level at 49.8p remains intact."

He obviously doesn't take any notice of the 'go away in may' advice. No complaint from me though, as 60p would get me back to about breakeven!

60p would make me rather happy.

26th April Deutsche Bank Buy 52.61 64.00 64.00 Retains

Might be a good week for LLOY. According the the press today, consensus forecasts are expecting £649m post tax profit for Q1. For the full year they are expecting pre-tax profit of £1.6bn. Also talk of divi being restored in 2014. Looks like A H-O is keeping his head down but delivering the goods!

SALE OF RETAIL BANKING OPERATIONS IN SPAIN

Lloyds Banking Group plc (the Group) is today announcing that it has agreed to sell its Spanish retail banking operations, including Lloyds Bank International S.A.U and Lloyds Investment España SGIIC S.A.U, to Banco Sabadell, S.A (Banco Sabadell).

The sale comprises the Group's retail and private banking business and the local investment management business in Spain. The business being sold consists mostly of retail mortgages and deposits, with a large portion of non-resident clients. The Group's Spanish corporate banking operations, serving business clients, are not included in this transaction and will continue to operate as usual.

To ensure continued support for our customers in the Spanish market and in conjunction with the sale, the Group is also developing a collaboration agreement with Banco Sabadell which it is expected would involve exploring potential business opportunities in areas including retail, commercial, private banking, asset finance and asset management.

Under the sale agreement, the Group will receive shares equivalent to approximately 1.8 per cent of the total issued share capital of Banco Sabadell as part of the consideration for the sale. The Group intends to be a supportive shareholder of Banco Sabadell and has undertaken to retain the shares received under the sale agreement for a period of at least two years.

Total consideration will be payable in a mix of shares and cash. At completion Banco Sabadell will deliver 53.7 million ordinary shares out of their treasury holding with such shares being valued at €84 million (£72 million1) by reference to the volume weighted average share price on 26 April 2013. An additional consideration of up to €20 million (£17 million1) may be payable in cash within the next five years dependent on mortgage book margins.

As of 31 March 2013 the total assets of the sale were approximately £1,517 million, comprised almost entirely of customer lending, and customer deposits were approximately £670 million. The business reported a loss of approximately £43 million in 2012, which included an increase in the impairment provision as a percentage of impaired loans to approximately 90 per cent. The sale of the business is currently expected to lead to a loss on disposal of approximately £250 million1 in the Group's accounts.

The sale is in line with the Group's strategy of rationalising its international presence and ensuring best value for shareholders. The current senior management employed by Lloyds Bank International S.A.U and all of the staff of the Spanish retail operations will move across with the subsidiaries on sale. Any cash proceeds of the sale will be used for general corporate purposes.

The sale is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to complete in 2013.

Numis Buy 53.39 63.00 63.00 Reiterates

Deutsche Bank Buy 53.39 64.00 64.00 Retains

1st Quarter Results

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

'STRONG PERFORMANCE IN THE FIRST THREE MONTHS OF 2013'

'We made substantial progress again in the first quarter. Underlying and statutory profits improved significantly, and our core loan book returned to growth earlier than expected. Margin increased, and costs and impairments continued to fall rapidly, with this progress underpinned by a further strengthening of our balance sheet. We are delivering real benefits for customers, colleagues and shareholders by investing behind our simple, UK customer-focused retail and commercial banking model, and are now further ahead in our plan to transform the Group, as reflected in the enhanced guidance for costs and capital we are giving today'.
António Horta-Osório
Group Chief Executive

Substantial increase in Group underlying and statutory profit
· Group underlying profit of £1,479 million (Q1 2012: £497 million)
· Statutory profit before tax of £2,040 million (Q1 2012: £280 million)
· Total underlying income of £4,889 million up 3 per cent, includes £394 million gain relating to the sale of shares in St. James's Place
· Group net interest margin increased to 1.96 per cent; on track to meet guidance for 2013
· Costs further reduced by 6 per cent to £2,408 million; Simplification run-rate savings increased to over £1.0 billion
· 40 per cent reduction in impairment charge to £1,002 million (Q1 2012: £1,657 million)

Core returns further improved and increased core underlying profit
· Core return on risk-weighted assets increased from 2.61 per cent to 3.20 per cent
· Core underlying profit increased by 19 per cent to £1,871 million (Q1 2012: £1,576 million)
· Core net interest margin of 2.34 per cent improved by 2 basis points
· 4 per cent reduction in core costs to £2,269 million (Q1 2012: £2,353 million)
· Core loans and advances increased by £0.6 billion in the first quarter of 2013, ahead of guidance

Strong balance sheet; continue to be confident in capital position
· Core tier 1 capital ratio increased to 12.5 per cent (31 December 2012: 12.0 per cent)
· 60 basis points of underlying pro forma fully loaded CRD IV capital generation in the first quarter, offsetting IAS 19R impact; estimated pro forma fully loaded CRD IV core tier 1 ratio unchanged at 8.1 per cent
· Continued capital-accretive non-core asset reduction of £9 billion on a constant currency basis, £6 billion after currency effects. Non-core assets now £92.1 billion (31 December 2012: £98.4 billion)
· Sale of Spanish retail operations agreed in April, which will lead to a further reduction of £1.5 billion in non-core assets
· Core loan to deposit ratio of 100 per cent; Group loan to deposit ratio of 119 per cent; deposit growth of 1 per cent in quarter

Supporting customers and the UK economic recovery
· Commercial Banking core loan book returning to growth
· Positive SME net lending growth of 4 per cent in the last twelve months, against market contraction of 4 per cent
· Over £350 million committed to manufacturing in the first quarter of 2013; on track to exceed £1 billion target
· Supported over 13,000 first-time buyers in the first quarter of 2013; committed to helping around 60,000 in 2013
· Continue to address existing legacy issues; PPI complaints falling in line with expectations; progressing IPO of Verde

Increased cost reduction targets for 2013 and 2014; expect fully loaded core tier 1 ratio above 10 per cent by end 2014
· On track to meet 2013 guidance, including a Group net interest margin of around 1.98 per cent in 2013
· Now targeting further reduction in total costs to around £9.6 billion in 2013, compared to previous target of £9.8 billion
· Expect total costs to be around £9.15 billion in 2014, assuming Verde IPO in mid 2014
· Expect our estimated pro forma fully loaded CRD IV core tier 1 ratio to be above 9 per cent by end of 2013 and above 10 per cent by end of 2014

Reuter's take - Lloyds Q1 profits jump, lifts cost cutting target

LONDON | Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:22am BST
(Reuters) - State-backed Lloyds Banking Group reported a jump in first-quarter profits on the back of improved margins and lower costs on Tuesday, and raised the amount it expects to save from shrinking the bank.

Lloyds said costs in the first quarter fell 6 percent from a year ago and it expects to cut costs to about 9.15 billion pounds in 2014, a reduction of 2 billion pounds from 2010 and double its target when it laid out its restructuring plan.

All looks pretty good to me, though bank P & L accounts are mind numbingly difficult to read. I wonder if the sp will show any difference or is it 'all in the price' as usual?

11 bob just gone.

That's better. Just nudged 57p. I presume you sold on the news skinny, at an embarrassing profit?

No - I'm holding.

Webcast @9:30, then some broker re-writes - webcast

Shore Capital Buy 56.42 - - Retains

Deutsche Bank note today:
"Company reported group underlying profit of £1,479m is 53% ahead of DBe. If we adjust for £394m in profit on sale of the partial stake in St James Place, we have underlying profit of £1,085m which is 13% ahead of our forecast. TNAV of 54.9p is ahead of our 53.6p, fully loaded Basel 3 core tier 1 of 8.1% is 10bps ahead of our 8.0% forecast. Management have maintained guidance for a full year net interest margin of 1.98% as before – and despite another £776m gain on sale of higher yielding gilts (company says it has now largely completed its rebalancing of the portfolio). Cost guidance for FY13 has been upgraded by £200m to £9.6bn. Non-Core run-off is cheaper than we’d expected with a loss of £392m at half what we had forecast. Impairments for the non-core of £511m in the quarter are now almost the same as in the core – which is huge progress from just a year ago. At a group level, these are strong results.
The split between Core and Non-Core performance is not as good as we’d hoped. Of course, investors buying the stock are buying both the core and non-core bank, but as the ongoing business, we were disappointed that core profit slightly missed our estimates for revenues, costs and impairments. Of these, weaker non-interest income is largest, and will be in focus on the conference call. More positively, core loans are growing again and net interest income is flat YoY, costs are down 3% YoY.
Overall, we think these are good results. The outlook for 2013 and 2014 is supportive of the stock we think and the terminal proposition of an efficient and profitable bank focused on UK retail remains intact. NIM guidance is reiterated, cost guidance upgraded for this year, and 2014 cost guidance of £9.15bn in 2014 is new and ahead of current consensus of £9.3bn. We are ahead of consensus on costs. Full B3 capital is guided to pass 9% in 2013 and 10% in 2014. The company gives no update on the FPC review but says that it continues to be confident in its capital position. Overall, on 0.9x TNAV and 7.3x 2014 EPS, 9.3x 2014 group EPS, with consensus likely to upgrade small for next year on costs, we like the overall shape of what we see. Retain Buy.

StockMarketWire.com
Oriel Securities lifts Lloyds Banking Group to hold from sell, target 41p.

Lloyds' first-quarter results were modestly ahead of consensus estimates, but Nomura has maintained its 'reduce' rating for the bank, saying that the strong share-price reaction on Tuesday morning was overdone.

Nomura thinks that Lloyds' cost guidance - to reduce total costs to £9.6bn this year, better than previous £9.8bn target - will likely drive headline upgrades to consensus estimate of 1-2% but this is driven by the sale of its stake in St James's Place relative to current expectations. The broker said that the "core cost of risk has not improved from the 2012 run rate".

Investec Hold 55.73 53.50 50.00 - Under Review

Unless LLOY start paying dividends by next year Osborne would not be able to start offloading our shares before the general election in May 2015.

Deutsche Bank Buy 54.52 64.00 64.00 Reiterates

Morgan Stanley Equal weight 54.52 53.00 54.00 Retains