Yorkshire group in talks to buy Halifax estate agency chain from Lloyds
YORKSHIRE group LSL Property Services is in talks with banking giant Lloyds to buy the Halifax Estate Agencies chain.
The York-based group, which owns the estate agency brands Your Move, Reeds Rains and Intercounty, has confirmed the discussions and said it “may or may not lead to an offer” for the chain which has 218 offices across the UK including 93 franchises.
Lloyds Banking Group, which is 43% owned by the Government, has been looking to sell off non-core assets following the acquisition of HBOS to reduce the stake owned by the state.
LSL was formed after the management buyout of Your Move, which has around 300 branches, from Norwich Union in July 2004.
Lloyds confirmed the negotiations and said it will provide an update “in due course”.
The announcement comes after Lloyds sold most of Insight Investment Management to Bank of New York Mellon £235m in August.
LSL said that its “flexible business model” was helping it defy the downturn as it reported a growth in half-year profits in August.
The group posted profit before tax, amortisation and exceptional costs of £9.4m for the six months to June 30, up 39% from £6.8m at the same time last year.
Although group revenue declined to £74.1m from £93.1m, underlying operating profit was up 17% to £10.9m.
LSL said its management’s focus on reducing costs had helped to cut operating costs by 25% and see operating margin increase from 10% to 14.6%.
