Lloyds to Sell Halifax Estate Agents for £10m

LSL Property Services – the leading UK estate and surveying agency – recently announced that it has started negotiations with the Lloyds Banking Group, which are associated with a possible acquisition of Halifax Estate Agents.
Halifax Estate Agents is British 5th largest network of estate agencies, which consists of 218 offices. Yet, according to the speculations, the Lloyds Banking Group, plans to sell the business chain because it, being non-core to Lloyds’ operations, distracts the company from its major activity. Moreover, Halifax Estate Agents was hit hard by the economic downturn in the past 2 years and is not expected to expand further.
On the other hand, Halifax Estate Agents can become a significant contribution to the business of LSL Property Services that already owns 357 branches, all of which are worth £250 million. LSL Property Services has already acquired Your Move in July 2004; it also owns the Reeds Rains (a network of estate agencies) and Chancellors and Barnwoods (surveying agencies). In case the acquisition of Halifax Estate Agents by LSL Property Services succeeds, the company will become second largest UK chain of estate agencies.
Meanwhile, the sale of the estate agencies’ network is not considered crucial by the Lloyds Banking Group. It will not bring the Group any substantial capital; rather, it is believed to be a so-called “tidying up operation” in the framework of HBOS integration process.
Halifax Estate Agents can be sold for no more than £10 million, experts believe. Evidently, this sum can barely help the Lloyds Banking Group to meet state-aid remedies, which are being demanded by the EU and Ms. Neelie Kroes in particular.
Let us remind that earlier, Lloyds received £14.5 billion in Government aid, which aimed to support the group through the financial downturn and HBOS acquisition.