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Article: Lloyds TSB sells its assets in New Zealand for [pounds sterling]2bn.
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- October 24, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: BERNARD O'RIORDAN
LLOYDS TSB, Britain's fifth biggest bank, today moved to strengthen its balance sheet further and end two years of falling earnings by finally offloading its New Zealand assets to Australia's ANZ Banking Group for A$5.14 billion ([pounds sterling]2.1 billion).
The sale, the fifth by the bank this year, could help ease investor concerns and remove the need for Lloyds to cut its dividend.
ANZ today agreed to pay A$5 billion for Lloyds' New Zealand offshoot, the National Bank of New Zealand. Lloyds will also receive a dividend of NZ$575 million ([pounds sterling]206 million) from NBNZ's retained earnings. Lloyds said it ...