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HBOS shares leap amid Lloyds hopes
Evening Standard 2 Oct 2008
Shares in Halifax and Bank of Scotland owner HBOS jumped another 14% today amid growing conviction in the stock market that its £11.7 billion takeover by Lloyds TSB will happen.
Veteran fund manager Anthony Bolton of Fidelity added his voice to a rising chorus of supporters of the deal.
He said: "I think it will be a very good thing for the banking market generally in the UK and I think the combined company will be an attractive investment."
HBOS shares soared 20.9p to 169p, aided by renewed talk that the bank is poised to sell its Australian business BankWest to Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Lloyds shares added 14½p at 264¼p. That pushed the value of the all-share bid up to 220p and narrowed the discount between the offer and the HBOS share price to 22%, the narrowest it has been this week. On Monday it hit 40%.
However, traders said the discount has been exaggerated by the ban on short-selling bank shares.
