Lloyds to sell 40 PE investments in 332-mn pound deal

Lloyds Banking Group plc will sell a portfolio of 40 private equity investments to a new joint venture, a deal that would fetch the entity as much as 332 million pounds in cash.

The sale is part of Lloyds' move to shed non-core assets.

Lloyds, which is partially owned by the UK government, in a statement today said that it would be selling a portfolio of 40 private equity investments in its Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance (BOSIF) business to a new joint venture Cavendish Square Partners LP.

In the new joint venture, Collar Capital would have a 70 per cent stake while the remaining 30 per cent would be held by Lloyds.

According to the statement, the total cash consideration for Coller Capital's, a leading private equity investor, is 332 million pounds.

The deal is expected to be complete in the third quarter of 2010.

"This transaction is in line with the group's strategy of divesting assets which are not core to its strategy and over the last twelve months the group has now sold six businesses, raising over 750 million pounds," it noted.

The companies in the portfolio are UK-headquartered trading businesses across a range of sectors.

"This sale is part of our wider Wholesale Banking strategy of focusing on our core relationship based businesses," Lloyds' Group Executive Director (Wholesale) Truett Tate said.