| September | | Friday 19th September 2008 09:34 |
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| | Friday 19th September 2008 11:27 |
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| | Friday 19th September 2008 09:22 |
LLoyds HBoS Merger |
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From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7622180.stm
Lloyds TSB seals £12bn HBOS deal
HBOS is the biggest mortgage lender in the UK
Lloyds TSB is to take over HBOS in a £12bn deal which will create a banking giant holding close to one-third of the UK's savings and mortgage market.
The firms' boards agreed on Wednesday to a deal, to be formally announced later, valuing HBOS at 232p per share.
The move should calm uncertainty about the strength of Halifax Bank of Scotland after a run on its shares.
HBOS is currently the country's largest mortgage lender with 20% of the market. Lloyds ranks fourth with an 8% share.
Market fluctuations
Details emerged late on Wednesday after a day during which HBOS shares had fluctuated wildly on the London market, climbing as high as 220p and falling as low as 88p.
Shares in the lender eventually closed 19% lower at 147.10p, while Lloyds shares ended unchanged at 279.75p.
How big are these finance firms?
The development comes as the credit crunch has wreaked havoc on some of the world's biggest financial institutions in recent days:
The global financial crisis
Barclays Bank is to buy some Lehman Brothers assets after the fourth-largest US investment bank filed for bankruptcy protection, dealing a blow to the fragile global financial system.
The US Treasury stepped in with an $85bn (£48bn) rescue package to bail out insurance giant AIG amid fears the group, once the world's largest insurer, could face collapse.
Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch in a $50bn deal - making it the third top US investment bank to fall prey to the sub-prime crisis within six months.
In Russia, trading on the country's main stock exchanges was halted after steep falls this week.
In the UK, figures released on Wednesday showed unemployment rising once again as the number of job vacancies fell.
BBC business editor Robert Peston said the government had opted to push through the Lloyds TSB-HBOS tie-up after HBOS voiced concerns that depositors and lenders had begun to withdraw their credit from the bank. |
| | Friday 19th September 2008 07:34 |
Merger News |
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| | Thursday 18th September 2008 07:34 |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2008/09/new_world_order.html |
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| New world order
Robert Peston
18 Sep 08, 08:11 AM
The new rule for any bank or financial institution in the world is don't be too dependent on any one source of funding - because in the stormy conditions on world markets, that funding can disappear, sending said bank crashing on to the rocks.
That's the main reason why HBOS last night agreed to be taken over by Lloyds TSB for £12bn.
The buffeting its shares were receiving on the London stock market week after week, the perception that it was too dependent on a British housing market heading for serious difficulties, was gradually undermining the confidence of the big institutions that provide around 44% of its funding.
There were signs of lenders to HBOS and depositors taking their cash back and putting it elsewhere.
If that had continued, well the consequences would have been unthinkable.
So the main benefit of its merger with Lloyds TSB is that the enlarged group will benefit from more diverse sources of finance - which should mean, to put it in crude terms, that the beefed-up Lloyds TSB will be less at risk of a run than either HBOS or Lloyds on their own.
It was exactly the same logic which drove Merrill Lynch, the big investment bank, into the arms of Bank of America at the weekend - because all the big investment banks, like Merrill, feel dangerously dependent on retaining the confidence of the big money managers and institutions that fund them.
And it's why Morgan Stanley - Merrill's great rival - is also looking for a partner or owner with more stable sources of funding (it's talking to America's Wachovia and others).
Even Goldman Sachs, the pre-eminent investment bank - in its recent heyday, one of the most powerful institutions in the western world - cannot be confident it can thrive and survive as an independent.
Also the recent behaviour of the US and UK governments has sent out a worrying message to the investment banks and their backers.
The authorities on both sides of the Atlantic have demonstrated that they'll do all they can to protect and preserve institutions that directly touch the lives of millions of people, retail banks such as Northern Rock and HBOS, mortgage funders such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or even an AIG, which has a huge retail presence.
But the US Treasury refused to prop up Lehman, which was allowed to collapse - and the salient fact about this investment bank is that it was not in retail banking.
The credit crunch is creating a new world order in banking and finance.
It's striking terror into the hearts of hedge funds, who can see their backers head for the hills at the mere sniff of an investment boo-boo by hedge-fund managers.
Conservative institutions, and those with simpler business models and a history of careful management of their funding sources, are the new superpowers.
It's a world in which Bank of America, JP Morgan, HSBC, Santander and even Lloyds TSB have the whip hand.
It's a world in which the Chinese state, if it co-ordinated the investments of its cash-rich institutions, could end up owning more-or-less the entire financial system of the US and the UK.
And it's a world in which even Morgan and Goldman may well have to surrender their proud independence. |
| | Tuesday 16th September 2008 09:34 |
Stats |
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LLOYDS vs HBOS
Branches - Lloyds 1,900; HBOS 1,100
Customers - Lloyds 16 million; HBOS 22 million
Employees - Lloyds 70,000; HBOS 72,000
Savings - Lloyds is the UK's fourth largest savings provider; HBOS is the market leader
Retail savings balance - Lloyds £65bn; HBOS £139bn |
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