Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg NewsAntónio Horta-Osório, chief executive of the Lloyds Banking Group.
LONDON – The Lloyds Banking Group said on Wednesday that António Horta-Osório planned to return to his post in January, after a two-month medical leave for exhaustion.
Mr. Horta-Osório passed a “rigorous process, including obtaining independent medical advice,” to prove he would be able to manage the bank effectively upon his return on Jan. 9, and that he would not experience a relapse, Lloyds said in a statement. His medical leave of absence began on Nov. 2.
After taking on too much work in his first year in the job, Mr. Horta-Osório was dealing with sleep deprivation and the inability to switch off, the Lloyds chairman, Winfried Bischoff, said.
“He returns with the full confidence of the board,” Mr. Bischoff said on a conference call with reporters. “Antonio realizes that he can’t come back business as usual. Antonio came forward with plans” to reduce his direct reporting lines.
Upon his return, Mr. Horta-Osório is to announce changes in the way he runs the bank and how much of the executive workload he plans to delegate, Mr. Bischoff said.
Mr. Horta-Osório, 47, joined Lloyds in March with great support from some investors, who hoped he would help turn around the struggling bank and wean it off government support. He was hired from Banco Santander, where he ran the British business and had a good track record of adding branches and expanding market share.
After a few months in the job at Lloyds, Mr. Horta-Osório said he would cut some middle management roles and improve customer service at branches.
Shares in Lloyds had declined 19 percent since Mr. Horta-Osório took leave; they gained 0.8 percent in London on Wednesday.
Mr. Bischoff also said that Mr. Horta-Osório was keen to return to the bank and had unanimous support from the board. The bank consulted doctors and shareholders, including the British government, before agreeing to his return.
“He was surprised as we were that this happened,” Mr. Bischoff said. “He has learned from what has happened. This is very unlikely to reoccur, and we put structures in place to make it even less likely.” He said the doctor’s view was that Mr. Horta-Osório had a “mild form” of exhaustion.
Mr. Bischoff thanked Tim Tookey, the departing chief financial officer, for taking over as chief executive on a temporary basis. Mr. Tookey had been expected to leave Lloyds early next year to join Friends Life, another British financial services company.
In a separate announcement, Lloyds said on Wednesday that it had entered into exclusive negotiations to sell 632 bank branches to the Co-operative Group. NBNK, a financial services firm set up in 2010 by Peter K. Levene, the former chairman of London’s insurance market Lloyd’s, is no longer a contender for the branches, Mr. Tookey said.
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