For the sake of accurate reporting, HBOS (which is me, yes) is being sold to Lloyds TSB. Yeah, its all gone a bit pear-shaped over here for me, though almost no information has come out yet. I was in line to maybe lose my job anyway, though that was looking less likely, but now, who knows? HBOS has a large deposit book, but they also borrow too much from the money markets, and since the money markets are all over the place due to the situation overseas making everyone paranoid, no-one wants our shares. Our balance sheet value has dropped ridiculously low, and our shares are worthabout 15% of what they were this time last year. In fact, they dropped from £3 last week to 88p at one point today, though they finished at about £1.43 - which is still terrible of course.
So Lloyds TSB are looking at buying us out. They've been prowling around looking for distraught lending banks to buy out since Northern Rock had its run last year, and they are strong in places where HBOS are weak so it makes sense. The Competitions Commission stopped the Northern Rock buy out because the resulting bank would be too big, but the government say they'd overrule the Commission over this because Halifax (the 'H' of 'HBOS') hold more personal mortgages than any other bank, and the Bank of Scotland has massive Corporate lending as well. If we went down, it would do some pretty terrible things to the economy as a whole - as I'm sure you can see, since some pretty big players are on the rocks State-side as well.
So they're looking at paying some pitiful price for us, £2 a share or something, and then some real solid lay-offs would hit as our assets are consolidated. The Guarian predicted upwards of 5000 jobs lost to the mega-group that would emerge - that's about half the staff that HBOS employ as a whole. But when that would happen, well, anyone's guess. Negotiations are still inderway, due to conclude tomorrow some time, and meanwhile I'll just keep hitting refresh on the stock exchange page for HBOS.
One good thing though - the only shares I own were free handouts, so its not like I've lost anything. One bad thing: my mortgage is with Halifax, as is my mortgage insurance.
Oh, and as for News, HBOS have told us almost nothing internally except "HBOS is a strong bank" which they've been chanting like a mantra for the past year. The real story is told in much more detail online. Try www.guardian.co.uk or www.bbc.co.uk, or even the Financial Times at www.ft.com - but don't bother looking for HBOS itself. They ain't saying nothin'.