8chan/8kun QResearch Posts (1)
#15224124 at 2021-12-20 13:46:51 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #19258: EBAKE edition
>>15224120
CONTINUED lloyds banks buys hbo
Cost savings are likely to be even higher and Lloyds may be playing down prospects to avoid a backlash about job and branch closures, analysts said.
The deal is expected to result in thousands of job cuts and hundreds of bank branch closures. "We will have some redundancies, some overlap," Lloyds CEO Eric Daniels told Sky Television, but he declined to be more specific.
Daniels will remain as chief executive and Blank will stay as chairman. Other positions and the future of HBOS CEO Andy Hornby have not been decided.
COMPETITION LAW "IN TATTERS"
The UK government will modify competition law despite the enlarged group having a 28 percent share of mortgages to ensure the stability of the UK financial system. Alistair Darling, UK finance minister, said he fully supported and welcomed the deal.
Lloyds has courted HBOS previously but regulators in the past would not have allowed a bank with such big positions in mortgages, current accounts and savings.
Bruno Paulson, analyst at Bernstein, said the deal left "the UK's banking competition policy in tatters".
Daniels called his HBOS counterpart Hornby six weeks ago and talks continued after that, Blank said.
But Daniels denied the deal was struck in haste: "There shouldn't be any impression this is a shotgun marriage or a forced marriage," he said on a conference call.
Lloyds, whose shareholders will own 56 percent of the enlarged group, said the combination will strengthen its ability to serve UK customers in the current difficult markets.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
It will have a quarter of current accounts, rank first for savings accounts and have 3,000 branches and over 135,000 staff.
But it will cut the bank's capital cushion and leave it more reliant on wholesale funding, so there are risks, analysts said.
Lloyds' core tier 1 capital ratio a key measure of financial strength will fall to 5.9 percent due to the deal, below the 6 percent regarded as comfortable.
Daniels said he would target a ratio of between 6 and 7 percent and will pay this year's final dividend in shares, cut the dividend next year, and consider asset disposals on top of cost savings to achieve this.
He declined to comment on what assets could be sold. HBOS's Australian arm Bankwest could be among the businesses on the block, analysts have said.
Daniels said reports that the deal could result in 40,000 redundancies "sound very much on the high side".
Merrill Lynch MER.N, Citigroup C.N and Lazard LAZ.N advised Lloyds. Morgan Stanley MS.N and Dresdner http://ALVG.DE advised HBOS.
Additional reporting by Myles Neligan, Lorraine Turner, Paul Hoskins, Sumeet Desai and Laurence Fletcher; Editing by Louise Ireland and Jason Neely
end and fucking notable