Lloyds announces pleasing profit
(29 April 2010 – UK) Britain’s 83 percent tax payer owned Lloyds Banking Group announced earlier this week that it made a first quarter profit and even expects to report one for the full year.
Chancellor, Alistair Darling, said that the government’s decision to part-nationalise the lender was ‘vindicated’ by the return to profit.
Shares in Lloyds have continued to rise and at the time of the bank’s announcement were trading at above the value the government paid per-share.
The return to profitability shows the banking system is stabilising, said Alistair Darling.
The economy is recovering but it's still fragile and I would not claim that it is out of the woods yet, the chancellor added.
Lloyds, which was created from the merger of Lloyds TSB and Halifax/Bank of Scotland, said it was also making good progress on integration savings, and expects to achieve £2 billion (A$3.3 billion) worth of synergies and other savings by the end of next year.
Analyst for Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers said that the government’s stake in the bank will continue to remain a technical drag on shares, however investor are looking at Lloyds anew, even though they are largely tied to the fortunes of the economy.
The bank said that its customer deposits rose by £5 billion in the first quarter, while lending balances were little changed.
Impairments, Lloyds Wealth and International division continued at a high rate, principally because of its exposure to commercial real estate in Ireland.
However, the level of impairments in the first quarter of 2010 was lower than the last quarter of 2009, the institution said.
Impairments have slowed significantly in the first few months of the year giving the bank confidence that it will achieve a better financial performance than previously guided, said chief executive Eric Daniels.
Mr Daniel’s also said he was pleased to report that Lloyds returned to profitability in the first quarter and expect the momentum to be sustained throughout 2010.
Shares in Lloyds have continued to rise and at the time of the bank’s announcement were trading at above the value the government paid per-share.
The return to profitability shows the banking system is stabilising, said Alistair Darling.
The economy is recovering but it's still fragile and I would not claim that it is out of the woods yet, the chancellor added.
Lloyds, which was created from the merger of Lloyds TSB and Halifax/Bank of Scotland, said it was also making good progress on integration savings, and expects to achieve £2 billion (A$3.3 billion) worth of synergies and other savings by the end of next year.
Analyst for Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers said that the government’s stake in the bank will continue to remain a technical drag on shares, however investor are looking at Lloyds anew, even though they are largely tied to the fortunes of the economy.
The bank said that its customer deposits rose by £5 billion in the first quarter, while lending balances were little changed.
Impairments, Lloyds Wealth and International division continued at a high rate, principally because of its exposure to commercial real estate in Ireland.
However, the level of impairments in the first quarter of 2010 was lower than the last quarter of 2009, the institution said.
Impairments have slowed significantly in the first few months of the year giving the bank confidence that it will achieve a better financial performance than previously guided, said chief executive Eric Daniels.
Mr Daniel’s also said he was pleased to report that Lloyds returned to profitability in the first quarter and expect the momentum to be sustained throughout 2010.
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