20th Mar 2015 07:23
LONDON (Alliance News) - TSB Banking Group PLC has agreed a deal that will see Spain's Banco de Sabadell SA buy the UK lender for about GBP1.7 billion.
In a statement Friday morning, the two banks said they have agreed a deal that values TSB at 340 pence per share. The stock closed Thursday at 327.00p.
The acquisition has the approval of Lloyds Banking Group PLC, which must sell its 50% stake in TSB by the end of 2015 to comply with European state aid rules after it required a government bailout in the financial crisis of 2007-09.
"We believe that our experience of growing SME lending, our resilient and tested IT platform and our commitment to innovation will speed up TSB's expansion so that it fulfils its potential as a strong and effective challenger to the traditional UK banks, without any of their legacy issues," Josep Oliu Creus, Sabadell's chairman, said in a statement.
TSB Chairman Will Samuel said that Sabdell's offer is a "vote of confidence" in the bank.
"With the support of Sabadell, TSB will benefit from the full capabilities the wider group will have to offer enabling us to accelerate our competitive capabilities even further. I'm looking forward to working with Sabadell to continue to bring great banking to consumers across Britain, accelerate the expansion of our services to business customers and to continue to bring more competition to UK banking," Samuel said.
Lloyds Banking Group Chief Executive António Horta-Osório said he was pleased to have agreed the deal as it allows the FTSE 100 bank to meet the requirements of the European Commission.
"This is a significant and positive step for the group and will enable us to meet our commitments to the European Commission, well ahead of its mandated deadline," Horta-Osório said.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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