April 26, 2024

DealBook: Lloyds Announces Plan to Cut 15,000 Jobs

The Lloyds Banking Group said on Thursday that it planned to eliminate 15,000 jobs by the end of 2014 and scale back its overseas operations as part of a larger reorganization aimed at allowing the British government to sell its stake in the lender.

Lloyds, of which the British government owns 41 percent, said it expected to save £1.5 billion ($2.4 billion) annually by the end of 2014. The savings would come from reducing its international presence to fewer than 15 countries from 30, lowering computer systems costs and streamlining middle management.

Shares in Lloyds rose 6.5 percent in early trading in London after the news.

“This bank has lost money and is losing money, and we have to get this bank back on its feet to support the U.K. economy and in order to enable it to repay taxpayers’ money,” the chief executive, António Horta-Osório, said. “This will be a journey, and it will take three to five years.”

Mr. Horta-Osório presented the cost-cutting plan four months after taking over as chief executive of Lloyds with a pledge to turn around the ailing bank. He said he planned to focus on the bank’s British retail business and on lending to small and midsize companies. Lloyds is Britain’s largest mortgage lender.

Lloyds, which received government funds to help it through the global financial crisis, is under pressure from the government to increase lending while also selling some assets to allow for more competition in the banking market.

The bank has already started to repay government aid and said it expected to receive offers for 632 branches it has to sell by the middle of July.

The cost savings announced on Thursday would allow Lloyds to invest £2 billion in its brand and to expand its wealth management unit focused on high-net-worth individuals with links to Britain.

Mr. Horta-Osório said he would focus on the bank’s Halifax retail banking brand and improve customer services by opening some branches on the weekend, for example.

Lloyds swung to a net loss of £2.4 billion in the first quarter on costs to compensate some clients that were improperly sold loan insurance.

Lloyds ran into trouble in 2008 after the government urged it to buy HBOS, a British mortgage lender that was on the verge of collapse. But the combination pushed Lloyds from profits into losses and its stock slumped, leading the government to step in with a rescue package.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=c248298aa58bc397188000e0669448dc

DealBook: Breaking Up Morgan Stanley

Morgan StanleyMark Lennihan/Associated Press

Analyst Brad Hintz has a solution for Morgan Stanley’s flailing stock price: Send the company to the chop shop.

In a report titled “Is The Firm Worth More Dead or Alive,” Mr. Hintz of Sanford C. Bernstein Company, concludes that breaking up the company could unlock its value.

“Investors have grown impatient with the performance of Morgan Stanley,” he wrote in a report released this morning. “To be sure our analysis is not an endorsement of Morgan Stanley dismantling its institutional trading operation, but makes an illustrative point that the market is overly discounting the firm’s inherent value.”

Shares of Morgan Stanley, which was badly bruised during the financial crisis, have taken a beating. The stock is currently trading below $23 a share, down from more than $30 earlier this year.

The firm’s chief executive, James P. Gorman, has made a number of fixes to the business. But the stock continues to languish as investors fret about the growth prospects of Morgan Stanley and the broader financial services sector.

So Mr. Hintz decided to break up the company and see what the parts were worth.

The company, he wrote, could liquidate its capital markets operation and pay a big one-time dividend of $8.66 to shareholders. The big three remaining businesses, its merger and advisery franchise, asset management and wealth management would be worth $31.47 a share, almost 30 percent higher than where the stock is currently trading.

In short, he thinks the stock may offer a good value at the current level.

“While the firm undoubtedly has its share of challenges, we believe current valuations offer an attractive entry point for long-term, value oriented investors,” he wrote.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=16c735ba744f84716af845c5ff2b1fb4

DealBook: HSBC Aims for $3.5 Billion in Savings, Trimming Retail

HSBC said Wednesday that it plans to cut costs by as much as $3.5 billion over the next three years to improve profitability, which it said could be hurt by stricter financial regulation.

HSBC, one of Europe’s biggest banks, said it will focus on commercial banking activities and wealth management while scaling back its retail banking operations to the most-profitable countries.

‘‘This is not about shrinking the business but about creating capacity to re-invest in growth markets and to provide a buffer against regulatory and inflationary headwinds,’’ the chief executive Stuart Gulliver said. He was expected to give more details about the plan when he meets investors later on Wednesday.

HSBC is not alone among banks seeking to streamline at a time when new financial regulations force them to hold on to more of their capital, resulting in pressure on profitability. The Barclays chief executive Robert E. Diamond said in February that he would review businesses and close some that do not generate enough return.

HSBC, which has already decided to withdraw from Russia’s retail banking market, said it would test all of its operations and businesses for profitability and a set of other criteria. The bank also set a target for its cost efficiency ratio of 48 percent to 52 percent.

HSBC surprised some investors on Monday when it said that costs as a proportion of income rose to 60.9 percent in the first quarter from 49.6 percent in the first three months last year. The higher costs overshadowed a 58 percent increase of net income in the quarter.

The London-based bank, which generates about half of its profit in Asia, weathered the financial crisis better than many of its rivals and did not have to ask for financial help from the government. But its share price started to lag behind that of Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Barclays this year as some investors raised concerns about rising costs and the pace of growth.

Article source: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/hsbc-aims-for-3-5-billion-in-savings-trimming-retail/?partner=rss&emc=rss