Lloyds eyes £11 billion in fundraising

 

Lloyds has lined up a syndicate of investment banks to underwrite an 11 billion pound ($17.6 billion) rights issue, the Sunday Times reported.

The newspaper, without citing sources, said UBS and Bank of America Merrill Lynch would act as lead underwriters on the fundraising, which would be linked to Lloyds' attempts to reduce its participation in the government's toxic loan insurance scheme.

Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Cazenove and HSBC have been lined up as joint underwriters, the Sunday Times added.

Part-nationalised lender Lloyds declined to comment.

The fundraising depends on support from the government and is also linked to negotiations with the European Commission over the level of state aid that Lloyds has received.

Newspaper reports have said Lloyds need to raise about 25 billion pounds to exit or reduce its participation in the toxic asset insurance scheme, which could cost the bank billions of pounds in fees.

The Sunday Times said the bank was also looking at plans to swap up to 15 billion pounds of debt securities for equity, as well as asset disposals.