Details of Lloyds Banking group's record £13.5 billion rights issue will be unveiled today as the bank indicates it is expecting strong demand.
The new shares are expected to be offered to the bank's beleaguered shareholders at a 30-55 per cent discount to last night's closing price of 91.47p.
The final go-ahead for the rights issue will be decided by a shareholder vote at a specially-convened meeting in Birmingham on Thursday. Institutional shareholder support means the vote will be overwhelmingly in favour of the issue, although the event is likely to give the bank's 2.8 million private investors another platform to air their grievances at Lloyd's poor performance.
Alan Steel, of the independent financial adviser Alan Steel Asset Management, said the discounted shares would appeal to investors. What does Warren Buffet do? He invests in businesses that are usually down on their luck. He said, 'It doesn't matter if it is socks or stocks, I like getting a big discount when I buy them'.
"I would suspect Lloyds is in not too bad shape. If you can buy at such a huge discount and you have got a lot of patience, I don't think it would be a bad idea."
The government is taking up its rights as part of the issue, investing £5.7bn net of an underwriting fee, to keep its stake in Lloyds at 43 per cent ...............
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Quote courtesy of The Scotsman
Tuesday 24 November 2009
