Lloyds Banking Group has reported a 22% rise in underlying profits to £1.8bn as its cost burden fell in the first quarter of its financial year.
The state-rescued lender, which is 25% owned by the taxpayer, confirmed it remained on track for a summer flotation of TSB and it was making no further provision for the costs associated with the Payment Protection Insurance mis-selling scandal.
However, on a statutory basis, pre-tax profits fell 32% on the same period last year but this reflected the sale of shares in asset manager St James's Place which bolstered profits in the same period last year.
Chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said: "We made good progress in the first quarter, benefitting from our simple, low cost and low risk, UK retail and commercial focused business model.
"We are supporting and benefiting from the UK economic recovery and are delivering better underlying profitability as well as improved returns for shareholders, from a stronger, lower risk balance sheet.
"And it was this strong performance which enabled the UK Government to further reduce its stake, returning an additional £4.2bn of taxpayers’ money in the first quarter."
The results were seen as strengthening the bank's case for gaining permission to restart dividend payments in the second half of the year.
It cut its costs by 5% from a year ago to £2.3bn while it said it expected a stronger 2014 net interest margin of 2.4%.
The margin - which is a key driver of profits for the group - improved to 2.32% in the first quarter, up from 1.96% a year ago.
The bank confirmed its intention to launch the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of TSB Bank by the end of June.
In a conference call with investors, the Group's finance director said it would look to offload a minimum 25% stake in TSB in the flotation and there would be a chunk available to retail investors.
TSB, which was spun out of Lloyds to satisfy state aid rules, has 631 branches.
Source Heart.com
No comments:
Post a Comment