ShareCast News


Broker snap: 'Hands off RBS, Vince,' says Investec

Fri, 3rd Aug 2012 10:02


Investec has reiterated its 'buy' recommendation for part-nationalised lender Royal Bank of Scotland after the group's in-line first-half results, saying that it expects a recovery in profitability from next year onwards.

"It's not all bad. While MPs and regulators focus their energies on sound-bites and gesture-politics, RBS management continues to make useful progress in terms of balance sheet repair," said analyst Ian Gordon.

Revenues of £6.4bn were in line with forecasts, insurance claims of £0.6bn were £0.1bn better, while costs of £3.9bn were £0.2bn worse on the back of one-offs and impairments. Meanwhile, the bank took a £135m PPI top-up, but the broker says that "encouragingly", net exceptionals fell sharply.

Rumours were doing the rounds on Thursday that the government is considering buying up the remaining shares that it does not already own in an effort to kick-start lending to businesses.

However, Gordon said that RBS is "more than capable of responding to any uptick in credit-worthy demand for finance," saying that it "remains a mystery as to why nationalisation might be considered practical or desirable.

"In the 1930s, the Kulaks chose to kill their own cows rather than hand them over to Stalin, and agricultural output fell by 87% as control of production was transferred to the hated collective farms - a salutary reminder for meddling UK politicians today," he said.

Currently, the stock is trading at 0.4 times tangible net asset value (tNAV) of 489p. Gordon said: "It will remain loss-making in 2012e for a fifth consecutive year, but thereafter we expect a slow recovery in profitability, with return on equity rising to c7% in 2015E."

The target price is left at 300p.

Shares had jumped 5.62% to 216p by 09:58.

BC





Back to ShareCast News


Sign up for Live Prices


Datafeed and UK data supplied by NETbuilder and Interactive Data. While London South East do their best to maintain the high quality of the information displayed on this site,
we cannot be held responsible for any loss due to incorrect information found here. All information is provided free of charge, 'as-is', and you use it at your own risk!
The contents of all 'Chat' messages should not be construed as advice and represent the opinions of the authors, not those of London South East Limited, or its affiliates.
London South East does not authorise or approve this content, and reserves the right to remove items at its discretion.