Lloyds sells HBOS investment arm
Lloyds Banking Group has agreed to sell the investment banking division of Bank of Scotland to Rathbone Brothers for £35m in a move that could prevent a further break-up of the business.
Garden sale: Lloyds hopes the sale of its estate agency and HBOS investment arm will appease the EU.
The sale may appease the EU's Competition Commission, which has hinted it may break-up Lloyds due to the High Street dominance it snatched with the takeover of stricken HBOS last year.
The group sold off its loss-making Halifax estate agency business to LSL Property Services last week for £1.
However, this further disposal may dissuade the Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes breaking up the banking behemoth.
The disposal of its estate agency business will lead to the loss of 460 jobs and a further 40 will be axed by 2011 as part of the Bank of Scotland Portfolio Management Service sale to Rathbone, along with two directly invested private client portfolios within Lloyds TSB Private Banking.
The sale involves the transfer of £1.27bn of managed funds to Rathbone, subject to client consent, but Lloyds will keep the Bank of Scotland Portfolio brand.
Lloyds will also retain the lion's share of its investment management services, totalling £8.5bn worth of assets and approximately 35,000 clients in its Investment Portfolio Management division.
The bank said it has also signed an exclusive agreement going forward with Rathbones to refer clients looking to invest between £250,000 and £2m in directly held investments.
Tom Woolgrove, managing director of UK Private Banking at Lloyds, said: 'Lloyds has carried out a thorough review of its private client businesses and has concluded that a specialist provider would be better positioned to manage this particular service for our clients.'
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