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Is has yet to be seen how "smart" Charlie is. So far he has not impressed with his decisions. Even if he were to see the light, it will take years to undo the damage AHO did to the company in his last five years. He hired a head of the Commercial Bank with no capital markets or Global Market experience. He hired a head of Markets (a friend apparently) with no experience from FX, interest, commodities or derivatives. He hired a head of Cash Management with no cash management experience and worst of all he hired a Treasurer with no experience at all (another friend), so bad the regulator would not approve him. These people have further eroded Lloyds deteriorating staff competence in combination with a weird "woke" culture with metrics to ensure that meritocracy is virtually abolished. The Private Bank has been hollowed out for a decade reducing products and services even preventing expat clients to buy new products, even a term deposit. The digital strategy is so centralized that instead of empowering businesses they prevent seamless services across businesses. The decision to move into the landlord business at an all time high real estate market in combination with rising interest rates and risk for recession is further concentrating risk, a big gamble if you wish. The only long term value with LBG is their incredible cash generating balance sheet with old style retail banking and credit cards. For value to be realised they really should get out of anything else. It is beyond repair just like many such banks across Europe. Once Charlie starts to sell off businesses with small market share and high cost of capital and start rebuilding human capital there is time to be optimistic. Besides the SP is much more exposed to macro events than anything Charlie and his angels can do. Sorry but it's just my view...

Good to see they have actively capped the interest rate on the new facility! The rate they are paying may look extremely cheap in due course.

The pound is always like one step forward two backwards. The 1 month 25 delta risk reversals in CABLE mostly trades with a premium for the STG Puts as that is usually where the risk is. But since the feds were more dovish than expected, in theory that should have had a somewhat neutral effect on the rate. Similar scenario with LBG... It's a though market right now...

Thanks for that Trotsky!
I hope she shows up at any of the other REIT's I own like RGL and RLE...

Morning, any thoughts on the resignation of Alex? I am a relatively new investor but was impressed with her presentations on the quarterly briefings and of course I have a lot of confidence in the company itself.

Plato, you have a good vision!

Despite Nunn's statement Pretax Profits were down 26% and the Core Capital Buffer was down quite a lot...
This in combination with uncertain economic outlook, perhaps a recession, will make both buy-backs and dividend growth uncertain. The 3Bio "initiatives" over three years is largely cost cuttings as always so any revenue growth will have to come from increases in the net interest margin (which may happen short to medium term). The only top line revenue growth initiative is the venture into land lording which increases risks and is very expensive to establish. This may not be a smart thing to do if recession hits and people start defaulting on private loans and mortgages... As always with Lloyds their statements counter the pesky reality.

To me this is a long term holding share. We like the sector, the management and the yield. When I built my portfolio of. UK REITS last year I found liquidity missing, which is obviously a risk, but I am not trying to be clever with market timing, at least not with these type of shares. Make a decision, buy to hold, sit back and monitor is my strategy.

https://www.finews.com/news/english-news/51087-claws-out-for-horta-osorio-s-lloyds-bonus

Swiss Bank Vontobel today affirmed LBG as a buy with a target of 68P.

Good! I worked there as an MD for 5 years while he was the CEO. His leadership style was from a hundred years ago. Never to be seen in the businesses. No interest in people, clients or actual product innovation. Arrogant and feared. Totally above everybody with his multiple BMW 7series (could not even drive Jaguar, a big client) outside the head office with bodyguards while the staff had bad office conditions across the UK. Recently, at Credit Suisse, he "upped" his game, rolling over the CEO, using the company jet to fluff around around world ignoring Swiss covid rules. They spit him out, rightly. In 30 years of working on Wall Street and in the City of London I have never seen such as bad pathetic leader. Plus of course the LBG share price was a disaster.... Sorry, I am done now...

As critical as I am of LBG my answer has to be NO at these levels. It is not a waste of time, their balance sheet is incredible (they just need to get rid of the ancillary's hobbies...). But as we all know the major factor is the overall markets...

THANKS LIVESTOCK!

Interest income is the vast majority of LBG earnings and one of the main reasons of owning it. It is part of the culture and a key KPI. During my five years there any attempt to build fee income met enormous practical and cultural resistance, especially as it is associated with more competent and expensive staff and investment in products and services. They worry about lending and costs which is fine but I would not attach too much credibility to a statement of increasing fee income.

While the balance sheet is massive the underlying units are not that big. BUT it is really only set up for retail banking including mortgages. Having worked there I agree they never found any synergies between the commercial bank, retail bank, insurance and Private Bank. It is all operating in splendid isolation and while there was some pressure to "collaborate" the focus was exclusively on top line mixed up with wokeism. Management and culture is largely awful. Perhaps it is better to focus on retail managing that big cash generating balance sheet and digitising and focus on playing large secure dividends like many years ago. I really see no long term value in Commercial Banking, Private Banking or Insurance for Lloyds. So I guess I largely agree...

Many thanks Robe141!

Lloyds Bank is a virtual oligopoly on the retail side in the UK. Which is reflected in their strategy (stagnant), staff(incompetent) and culture(lazy and woke) as well as very expensive offering as per present deposit rates.
I agree a takeover is virtually impossible but it is exactly what is needed to bring a more competitive offering to the market.

Almost all of our problems at the moment is due to insane Russian & China sponsored "climate" policies in the US, UK and in the EU, especially Germany. The second problem is Government spending across the same jurisdictions. Only by creating a strategy of energy independence will inflation be tamed and security return and only by cutting budget deficits and borrowings will sound economic conditions return.
The UK has not yet taken advantage of the liberation from the EU by cutting regulation and taxes. In a world where the EU and the US are still expanding red tape and big government, the UK has a massive opportunity to create Singapore on the Thames. It has the laws, the language and the financial markets to be able to expand free market capitalism to create wealth and prosperity for the British people. Big Bang 2.0!

88,
I don t disagree. Chase/JP can also sell/streamline the friendly but useless LBG Private Bank and sell off the LBG Commercial Bank. Since Andrew Bester quit as CEO of the Commercial Bank they have just strangled it and never built increased market share with SME and mid Market companies. It can be sold to Santander, HSBC, or Barclays. The only problem for Chase is that they cannot expand LBG's retail bank due to market share ceiling, BUT they can maximise the balance sheet while keeping the three brands; Lloyds, BoS and Halifax while considering a European strategy for Lloyds.
Very unlikely to happen though...

Walker, I could not agree more. AHO's last 5 years was a complete waste of time and the new dude is not making any progress. Historically the company has been committed to paying out "excess cash" but with a combination of regulatory interference and new management this is no longer true. I worked at LBG as an MD for about five years and the idea of shareholder value was not something the board focused on. Even if they had a credible growth strategy the management and the culture prevents effective implementation. I think it is a matter of bailing out at hopefully decent levels to move capital to greener pastures.