Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

Veteran UK fund manager Anthony Bolton believes that China's 'momentous' package of economic reforms, revealed last week, will be the catalyst that draws foreign investors back to one of the world's worst performing equity markets. China's top leaders last week released a blueprint for change covering various aspects of economic, social, and financial policy. Some economists have described it as the most important political development in China for more than 20 years, the Financial Times reports. The government would be "mad" to pay more than £4m in deferred fees to the banks that advised on Royal Mail's privatisation because they undervalued the company, the chairman of a parliamentary committee said after grilling the bankers on Wednesday. Adrian Bailey, who chairs the Business, Innovation and Skills (Bis) select committee, said paying the fees, on top of more than £12m already handed over, would reward highly paid bankers who set the float price too low at the expense of the taxpayer, The Guardian reports. Britain's biggest listed commercial property companies have taken a big bet on soaring London house prices and have significantly stepped up their plans to build high-end housing developments. UK real estate investment trusts plan to devote more than one-quarter of their activity to residential projects over the next five years and have lined up a £3bn pipeline of new housing developments, figures from analysts Green Street Advisors show, according to the Financial Times. City advisers to the UK government's privatisation of Royal Mail yesterday hit back at critics who had alleged that they sold one of the remaining state-owned crown jewels on the cheap. Shares in Royal Mail have rocketed by up to 80% since the privatisation, sparking claims by trade unions and opposition politicians that the float was under-priced for a politically expedient sale. But directors from investment banking giants Goldman Sachs and UBS, which advised Whitehall, told MPs on the business select committee that market uncertainty and the float's complexity contributed to a conservative £3.3bn valuation, The Scotsman reports. The Business Secretary said he was concerned that lending to SMEs had not picked up, despite the introduction of the Funding for Lending Scheme, and that credit was finding its way mainly to the housing market, where many experts fear a property bubble could be building. This was further highlighted by figures out yesterday, which showed that mortgage lending soared to a five-year high last month as housing activity picked up on the back of resurgent levels of consumer confidence, writes The Times. The Chief Executive of Lloyds has secured a £2.3m bonus for keeping the price of the banking group's shares above water for 30 nail-biting days. The award for António Horta-Osório crystallised yesterday after a month in which Lloyds' shares consistently closed above 73.6p, the average in-price for the stake the Government took during the financial crisis. Lloyds' shares were unchanged at 75p last night. Mr Horta-Osório will receive the award in the form of three million shares in 2018, valued at present at £2.3m. It must also pass Lloyds' remuneration committee, The Times reports. AB