Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

- Lloyds swings to statutory PBT of 415m pounds- Company on path to private ownership- Bonus pool raised by eight per centLloyds boss António Horta-Osório said on Thursday that the bank is looking at a return to private ownership as it swung to its first statutory pre-tax profit (PBT) in three years in 2013.The firm reported a statutory PBT of £415m for last year, compared with a loss of £606m in 2012, even after including an impairment of £3.05bn for PPI provisions.The Chief Executive said that the results "confirmed that the group is returning to robust health" and that it would be resuming dividend payments soon.However, this confidence was not reflected by the market following the results with the share price taking a dive as Lloyds came under fire for its bonus pool of £395m, up from £365m in 2012.Even Horta- Osório himself was forced to defend his £1.7m payout - to be paid in deferred share awards - in an interview with the BBC. He said: "I strongly believe you should link compensation with performance, and having increased our underlying profits by 140%, we thought it was appropriate to increase the bonus pool of the bank by 8%.His move follows the decisions by the heads at High Street lenders Barclays and RBS who both decided to waive their bonuses for 2013.Lloyds' share price was down 2.3% at 81.6p before the close of trade.Horta-Osório told reporters that the bank is now "back to normal" and it is up to UK Financial Investments (UKFI) - which controls the taxpayers' stake in Lloyds - and the Treasury "to decide how and when to dispose of those shares". Will Hedden, Premier Client Manager at IG, said that investors may have been put off by the "ball-is-in-your-court approach" that the bank is taking with the UKFI.Following the £20bn bailout given to Lloyds during the financial crisis, the government began selling down its 38.7% stake in September 2013, offloading a 6% holding. However, Chancellor George Osborne said he wants to offload the rest of the shares before the next election in 2015."Clarity on the government's disposal plans would certainly help give a better long-term picture, with some analysts highlighting that offloading the remaining 33% stake in one hit may be the best way to go," Hedden said.Meanwhile, Market Strategist Ishaq Siddiqi from ETX Capital said that although it's welcome the bank swung to a profit last year, "there remains plenty of work to do in regards to deleveraging, reshaping the balance sheet and cutting costs at the bank together with settling litigation scandals before the bank will be ready for privatisation".BC