One of the leading British banks Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON: LLOY), 40% owned by the British Government, said that its profit amounted to £ 1,6 billion ($ 2.5 billion) the first half of 2010. The figure above forecasts of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg, the expected profit at £ 620-700 million ($ 1-1,1 billion).
This is the first profitable reporting period for Lloyds Banking Group after the beginning of 2009 through the British government Lloyds TSB swallowed troubled mortgage bank HBOS. Following the merger with Lloyds HBOS group in the first half of last year, suffered a loss of $ £ 6,3 billion ($ 10 billion). In addition to the first profit Lloyds Experts pleased to halve the bank reserves to cover loan losses – with £ 13,4 bn ($ 21.4 billion) in the first half of last year to £ 6,6 billion ($ 10.5 billion) in the first half of this year. After publishing reports Lloyds Banking Group shares rose in price by 2,7% against the general decline of quotations British sector 1-1,8%.
