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.

StockMarketWire.com
Citigroup has downgraded high street banks Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) in a note to investors today, despite anticipating a continued improvement in earnings. The broker advised investors not to underestimate the time it will take to return to double-digit returns, or to restart dividends. Royal Bank of Scotland has been downgraded to "sell" from "neutral" while Lloyds has been downgraded to "neutral" from "buy". Price targets have been left unchanged at 290 pence and 62 pence per share respectively.

RNS LLOY to sell international private banking business for £100m to Union Bancaire Privee.

Sale of US Mortgage Backed Securities

LLOYDS BANKING GROUP ANNOUNCES SALE OF PORTFOLIO OF US RMBS GENERATING CAPITAL BENEFIT OF £1.4 BILLION

Lloyds Banking Group plc (the Group) announces today that it has agreed the sale of a portfolio of US RMBS (residential mortgage backed securities) to a number of different institutions for a cash consideration of £3.3 billion. The transaction is part of the Group's continued capital accretive non-core asset reduction.

The assets subject to the transaction have a book value of approximately £2.7 billion and as a result of the transaction the Group will realise a pre tax gain on sale of approximately £540 million. The sale proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

Numis Add 62.16 63.00 70.00 Downgrades

Barclays Capital Equal weight 61.28 61.19 40.00 65.00 Upgrades

Jefferies International Hold 59.15 - 65.00 Initiates/Starts

Summary of a fairly lengthy broker note from Jefferies Int (as in the above post):
"Valuation/Risks. We value RBS at 390p, based on regression of 10-year Gilt yield and sub- CDS. We value LLOY at 65p, based on MCPM-derived Ke of 9.7% and 2015 RoTE of 11%. RBS and LLOY are subject to extensive political risk given respective government ownership of 81% and 39%. Our above-consensus estimates are exposed to downward macroeconomic revisions."