logo-loader

Most followed: TSB, Lloyds Banking, Sainsbury, Netto, Mosman, Interserve, Debenhams, Domino's ...

Published: 20:06 20 Jun 2014 AEST

lloyds_banking_350_53a40859d2180

Lloyds Banking (LON:LLOY) has set the offer price for TSB at 260p per share, valuing the company at £1.3bn.

Lloyds, which is 24%-owned by the UK tax payer, is spinning off 35% of the TSB business in order to keep the European Commission sweet. The market had anticipated that only 25% of Lloyds’ holding would be spun off at this stage but clearly demand has been strong enough to justify a bigger sale, and the share price reaction reinforces this: TSB shares were quoted at around 292p in mid-morning trading.

Around three in 10 shares were assigned to retail investors, with the rest going to City institutions.

Lloyds has raised around £455mln from the share sale and still has a 65% stake in the revived TSB brand; the bank will have to sell off the remainder of its stake this year or next, with pundits suggesting the sale will probably take place before the General Election in May of next year.

The flotation price was just about in the upper half of the indicated 220p to 290p range.

The news is dominating stock market proceedings on an otherwise typically quiet Friday.

TSB is not the only brand making a return to the UK high street; Netto, the Danish discount store, sold its UK portfolio to Asda back in 2010 for £778mln, but is set to return to the UK in a joint venture with upmarket grocery chain Sainsbury (LON:SBRY).

The collaboration will see the launch of 15 Netto stores in the UK by the end of 2015, with the first set to open in the north of England by the end of next year.

As one observer remarked, there is little chance of Netto cannibalising Sainsbury’s sales as the latter is not very well represented in the north of England and the two brands target different sectors of the market.

A couple of mid-caps are tapping the corporate bond market; Interserve (LON:IRV), the support services and construction group, has raised US$350mln after placing loan notes with a weighted average maturity length of 10 year, while Debenhams (LON:DEB), the department store chain, is looking to raise £200mln through the issue of senior notes due 2021.

Debenhams also released an interim management statement that revealed like-for-like sales in the 14 weeks to 7 June were up 0.7% year-on-year.

Mosman Oil & Gas (LON:MSMN) is also raising funds, but is doing so through the issue of equity. The company has decided to expand its drill programme at the Petroleum Creek project in New Zealand and has raised £3mln through the issue of shares at 23p each to pay for it.

Online betting stock Betfair (LON:BET) is having a bad morning, as the opportunities for England backers to throw good money after bad look limited in future after last night’s defeat to Uruguay.

Pizza group Domino’s Pizza (LON:DOM) is also on the slide after last night’s unpalatable result, but pub groups are mixed.

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

9 hours, 51 minutes ago