Lloyds shares offer to the public

Thrugelmir

chucknorris wrote: »

Are you investing Thrug?

Undecided Chuck. I'm following some of the new challenger banks closely as there's better value to be had in my personal view. On a broader level I'm not overly keen on the UK banking sector at the moment. Burnt my fingers on Standard Chartered (glad I sold my entire holding in August!). Even HSBC's dividend is questioned as being sustainable longer term.

chucknorris

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Undecided Chuck. I'm following some of the new challenger banks closely as there's better value to be had in my personal view. On a broader level I'm not overly keen on the UK banking sector at the moment. Burnt my fingers on Standard Chartered (glad I sold my entire holding in August!). Even HSBC's dividend is questioned as being sustainable longer term.

Thanks, I understand and I appreciate that you probably enjoy the challenge of analysing all the relevant data, but that wouldn't be my thing, and after hours analysis, I would probably still make the wrong decision anyway (horses for courses). So I am going to take the simplistic approach and invest £4k (my wife just texted me back to say that she isn't interested, hence £4k, not £2k). The mere fact that you are considering it (rather than immediately dismissing it) is a plus sign to me.

Thrugelmir

chucknorris wrote: »

Thanks, I understand and I appreciate that you probably enjoy the challenge of analysing all the relevant data, but that wouldn't be my thing, and after hours analysis, I would probably still make the wrong decision anyway (horses for courses). So I am going to take the simplistic approach and invest £4k (my wife just texted me back to say that she isn't interested, hence £4k, not £2k). The mere fact that you are considering it (rather than immediately dismissing it) is a plus sign to me.

My current thinking has these points in mind.

Priority is being given to those applying for a £1k of stock.

Lloyds 2015 results are out on 25th February 2016.

Lloyds is pushing for an earlier cut off date for the submission of PPI claims. Currently 2018 is being mooted. This potentially leaves Lloyds open to as yet unquantified level of claims.

Glen_Clark

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Would you prefer the majority of the shares were sold off to non UK investors?

From a moral point of view I would prefer the shares be sold at the market price if they are to be sold at all. Just like I did not want the building societies to be carpetbagged. But that doesn't stop me taking advantage. If someone is going to get a free lunch out of this, it might as well be me.

veryintrigued

Recent share performance isn't inspiring for current share holders!!

marathonic

The market turmoil has reignited my interest in this offer. The discount and bonus shares means that you'd effectively be buying the shares at their lowest since the first half of 2013 if the offer were based on today's price.

Surely the banks balance sheet is in a much, much better state that it was at that time.

bowlhead99

marathonic wrote: »

The discount and bonus shares means that you'd effectively be buying the shares at their lowest since the first half of 2013 if the offer were based on today's price.

Surely the banks balance sheet is in a much, much better state that it was at that time.

But at that time, the banks balance sheet was expected to improve to be in a much, much better state than it was at that time, and the share price at that time was considering those factors in coming up with a price. And people who have been in since the first half of 2013 have since taken dividends out of the company. And further PPI provision (for claims that relate to activity way before 2013) has needed to be made.

The fact that overall the balance sheet is improved since 2013 does not need to change the price of a share - because the present value of what you, an owner of Lloyds, are likely to be able to get out of it in the long term, is not necessarily any greater than what people thought in 2013.

chucknorris

I'm interested, but cash is tight right now as I have put all of my cash into the market because of the recent fall.

marathonic

Looks like the sale is going to be delayed significantly:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35429472

Glen_Clark

With Osborne its always political, so he will want the sale to appear to show a profit for the taxpayer - which it won't at the current market price. Those who received no bailout (HSBC, building societies etc) are paying the highest amount in Osborne's banking levy to bail out their competitors. More hidden subsidies like that might raise the share price to the point where Osborne can present it as making a profit.
Or maybe he will find a way to split it into a Good bank to sell and Bad bank to keep, privatise the profits and socialise the losses?