Lloyds plots IPO of TSB in next eight weeks

TSB bank is due to float in London before the end of June, with owner Lloyds Banking Group planning to sell at least a 25 per cent stake of the recovering business. An initial public offer (IPO), which would include some of the shares being made available to retail investors, has been estimated to value the business at around £1.8bn. Lloyds, which is now 24%-owned by the state, is obliged to sell the stake as part of stipulations set out by the EU when the FTSE 100 bank was bailed out in 2008, in order to create a more competitive banking market.The group must sell its entire TSB stake by the end of 2015.In the group's first-quarter statement Lloyds' Chief Executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said: "Following the launch of TSB Bank in the second half of 2013, we have continued to prepare for an IPO of the TSB business. "We are now well placed, subject to final regulatory approval and market conditions, to launch the IPO in the summer of this year."TSB's asset included 632 branches, which the bank initially intended to sell to the Co-op Group's banking arm.TSB Bank recently appointed Mark Fisher, Director of Group Operations at Lloyds, as a Non-Executive Director. He is expected to leave his position on May 31st 2014.OH