Lloyds says HBOS deal could affect law jobs
Lloyds TSB has today (18 September) confirmed that there could be legal job losses as a result of its £12.2bn takeover of stricken lender HBOS.The bank, which unveiled details of the union earlier today (18 September), said it is expecting to make cost savings of around £1bn a year through the merger by 2011.Head office operations including legal, HR, risk and finance departments are among those facing consolidation at the two banks, which are acknowledged to have substantial cross-over between their operations.
September 18, 2008 at 11:50 AM
3 minute read
Lloyds TSB has today (18 September) confirmed that there could be legal job losses as a result of its £12.2bn takeover of stricken lender HBOS.
The bank, which unveiled details of the union earlier today (18 September), said it is expecting to make cost savings of around £1bn a year through the merger by 2011.
Head office operations including legal, HR, risk and finance departments are among those facing consolidation at the two banks, which are acknowledged to have substantial cross-over between their operations.
Lloyds TSB is understood to have a team of around 25 lawyers in its London headquarters, including general counsel and company secretary Margaret Coltman. Coltman took up the in-house post in December last year after three decades with Norton Rose, where she was a partner in the corporate group.
HBOS, meanwhile, has an in-house legal team of some 50 lawyers and an estimated annual legal spend of £30m.
Lloyds announced the takeover yesterday (17 September) after HBOS's share price collapsed in the wake of the shock bankruptcy filing of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, which triggered a renewed wave of instability in international banking.
The HBOS rescue deal is also notable as the UK Government has pledged to introduce emergency legislation to allow the union to override competition hurdles.
Allen & Overy (A&O) and Linklaters have landed the top roles on the takeover. A&O is fielding a team under relationship partner Alistair Asher, with corporate partner David Broadley and anti-trust partner Mark Friend assisting.
Linklaters is acting for Lloyds, with London corporate partners Jeremy Parr and Duncan Barber leading a team also including competition partners Michael Cutting and Bill Allan.
The news emerged as PricewaterhouseCoopers, UK administrators to Lehman, formally announced yesterday that it would be able to pay all UK staff until the end of the month.
Legal Week reported yesterday that the 50-strong in-house legal team were set to receive their salary – contradicting initial predictions that Lehman staff would not be paid following the US bank's shock collapse. While no redundancies have been confirmed recruiters are working in and around Lehman's City base and several firms are known to be interested in hiring lawyers from the team. Some Lehman legal staff been told that there could be a "clarification" by the end of the week of whether a buyer is likely to quickly acquire substantial parts of Lehman's London business, including taking on some of the bank's UK staff.
This has raised expectations that Barclays could take on a number of Lehman lawyers following the deal it sealed on Wednesday to buy Lehman's New York advisory business. Barclays chief executive John Varley yesterday confirmed that the bank was interested in some of Lehman's UK division but said that Barclays was more likely to recruit teams than attempt a wholesale acquisition.
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