Daily News Channel
Lloyds Banking Group Wednesday reported a loss of £4 billion ($6.8 billion) for the first half of 2009 — much of it incurred from its takeover of troubled UK rival HBOS earlier in the year. The banking group took a charge of $22.8 billion, mainly for bad loans — 80 percent of which came from HBOS. “Our first half loss was driven by the high levels of impairment,” Group Chief Executive J Eric Daniels said in a statement.
The UK government confirmed Saturday that it will take majority control of Lloyds Banking Group, with the taxpayer owning 65 percent of voting shares in return for insuring £260 billion ($366 billion) of the group’s toxic assets. The British Press Association reported that the deal with the Treasury would see Lloyds commit to lend at least £28 billion ($40 billion) over the next two years.
British bank Lloyds has announced that HBOS, the rival it took over last year, made a £10.8 billion ($15.5 billion) pre-tax loss for 2008. Lloyds itself posted an 80 percent plunge in pre-tax profit to £807 million ($1.1 billion), which was in line with figures released in a trading update earlier this month.
Lloyds Banking Group saw its share price tumbled Friday after reporting worse-than-expected profits for its subsidiary HBOS. Shares for the UK-based banking group tumbled almost 35 per cent by the close of London trading Friday, Reuters.com reported. The Lloyds Banking Group, formed following the merger between HBOS and Lloyds TSB, began trading for the first time last month