Lloyds Banking Group

Lloyds Banking Group seals 8.85m GBP loss for Invesco as NBNK Investments reaches the end of the road

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Category: Lloyds Banking Group

Published on Thursday, 28 June 2012 08:44

Written by Will Peters

Morning financial and economic briefing featuring Lloyds Banking Group, Invesco Asset Management, FTSE 100 gains, Barclays, Severn Trent joint venture.

Lloyds Banking Group plc (LON:LLOY) has essentially sealed the fate of NBNK Investments by re-entering exclusive talks with the Co-op over the sale of 632 of its branches.

NBNK Investments, a City investment vehicle created to purchase a presence in British high-street banking, will now be wound up reports the Times.

The result is a loss of 8.85m GBP for Invesco Asset Management, the largest stake holder in the investment vehicle with 29.5 pct. Avivia will take a loss of 3.45m.



Lloyds Banking Group plc announced yesterday that the sale of the branch network to the Co-op had made 'considerable' progress.

FTSE 100 manages to hold onto gains

The FTSE 100 has held yesterday's gains - a rare achievement in these days of woe for the Eurozone.

"The fact that markets have so far managed to hold onto yesterday’s gains has been completely overshadowed by the lampooning of London listed bank, Barclays. By now, even those most detached from the financial industry will have probably heard about the fixing of LIBOR, a rate against which nearly all derivatives are priced," says David White at Spreadex.
 
Investors realise that the incentive structures of financial behemoths of the last crisis and of today provided scope not only to create a fierce will to make money but to potentially invoke actions that are sometimes morally questionable and indeed unlawful.
 
"And Barclays, it seems, has not acted alone in this scam, with other banks soon to face investigation. How much damage the manipulation of LIBOR might cause to these banks, their reputation, and their investors’ confidence remains to be seen. But there’s certainly little upside to be taken from the announcement," says White.
 

News Corp board agrees to split

The News Corporation board has unanimously agreed in principle a plan to split its entertainment and publishing assets into two separate companies, according to reports. News Corp’s board voted to approve the plan at a meeting in New York last night after the company revealed it was considering the radical restructure earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The decision is yet to be confirmed by the media giant, but a statement on the move - that would see all News Corp newspapers, including The Times, The Sun and The Wall Street Journal, placed in a separate company - is expected to be released later today, writes the Times.

Severn Trent and Costain Group form join venture

Severn Trent Plc announced that it had entered into a new JV with Costain Group Plc to provide water and waste management services to high volume commercial and industrial water users.

Severn Trent will have a 60% holding in the JV and will contribute its UK non-regulated, asset operation & maintenance, water hygiene, developer services and Design Build Operate business. These operations comprise gross assets of GBP0.1m and last year broke even on GBP7.8m in revenues.