As short-sellers scent blood, the smiling Daniels may be doomed
November 3rd, 2009
Eric Daniels, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, may still be smiling. But it seems his plans for biggest rights issue in UK history are doomed. Perhaps investors are finally cottoning on to the fact the bank he leads may now be so radioactive it is essentially worthless.
Already 8% of Lloyds Banking Group’s shares have been rented out to short-sellers — a pretty high percentage given that 43% of the bank, which holed itself below the waterline with its acquisition of HBOS last year, is now owned by the taxpayer. This means that 14% if the bank’s free float is already in the ‘wrong’ sort of hands. And the percentage seems to be rising fast.
A graph published on FT Alphaville using on data from Data Explorers, reveals the extent of Daniels’s problem. Basically, the short-sellers are scenting blood.
I’ve always thought that, contrary to the views of HBOS’s former chairman Lord Stevenson, these guys provide the world a service in that they expose companies with deceptive balance sheets — and it’s probably going to be no different this time. One’s faith in the City is, almost, restored.
- To view an earlier blog post “Is Lloyds the new Enron”, click here
- To read a selection of earlier articles on Lloyds Banking Group and HBOS click here
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:02 am
Here’s why Daniels is smiling
It’s a ‘heads we win – tails you lose’ scenario for bankers like Daniels. A total stitch-up. That’s why he is smiling so inananely! With the corrupt SFO, toothless and unprincipled FSA, yes-men police squad, disingenuous Insolvency Service, an army of lackies, an invisible armour of protection provided by Magic Circle law firms who refuse to act for anyone against a bank (they know which side their bread is buttered), and the bent Judicia all behind them, what do they have to worry about ? Seriously? Who can (or dare) pierce their protectionist racket ?
* They can ‘buy’ gagging orders on the media (and do, with alacrity).
* They can ‘rig’ evidence in our courts (and do, on a frequent basis.)
* They can bully businesses into ‘failure’ and expropriate their assets because they are referees in their own game (and they do on a daily basis).
* They can strip the public of their assets and their family homes through unlawful repossessions, and then walk away (by the thousands, weekly).
* They can afford the biggest and best lawyers to fight their substanceless cases (whose God is money and NOT justice).
* They created a rigged legal services market so that all lawyers are bent in their favour and created a totally one-sided pitch, which makes it virtually impossible for anyone who has been fleeced to act against them: it could wreck their career.
* They can financially rape the public all they want through scalping and monstrous bank charges / interest and other illegal charges.
* They can block hearings from taking place through ‘buying’ and bribing Judges (and they do, frequently).
* They can manipulate the outcomes of cases by wheeling in the Insolvency Service to wind people and companies up, following ludicrous ‘costs orders’ in the High Court, and use bankruptcy as a ‘lethal weapon’ (one of their favourites, this one).
* They can give their orders to New Scotland Yard and the Met office, to ensure anyone with ideas of challenging them, are kept at bay.
* They can neutralise the FOS by limiting him to only £100k maximum settlement, and then overseeing that this never happens: he’s only there ‘for show’ and to keep up appearances of Justice.
* They can call the shots to the Bar Council and the ‘Bar Standards Board’ by rewarding biased management principles necessitating the exercise of an illegal monopoly over the barristers PI insurance policies: running a ‘tight ship’, so fairness NEVER gets a look in.
* They control the outcome of legal cases by ensuring the judges can not be ‘got’ at, by means of blocking any complaints from the public, and ensuring all advocates are ‘above the law’ and “untouchable”, literally cutting off the legs from under public and removing their teeth.
* They can bat off third party interlopers who challenge and expose them by making them bankrupt, using their army of corrupt lackies.
Need I go on? Isn’t this a lot to smile about Eric? Performance, standards and integrity went out of the window, many decades ago! Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:08 am
Ian Fraser is on the ball with theses comments. However, spare a thought for Eric Daniels. The right man in the wrong job. Never before in his banking career has he had to deal with so much bad and doubtful debt. HBOS, now his and the public’s nightmare, had lent so many billions into the property market and then taken equity in these firms, that it’s probably going to be impossible for him to balance the books.
One only has to look at Murray International Holdings / Rangers, with debts of £760 million and assets worth about 25% of what they’re valued at in the MIH accounts to realise that Lloyds Banking Group will struggle to make any sense of this problem. It’s hard to see how a pre-pack administration isn’t going to be their preferred escape route in these market conditions.