MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Court approves UK's “super bank”: Lloyds TSB + HBOS

The formation of a UK “super bank” has been rubber-stamped with a court giving its approval for Lloyds TSB's takeover of HBOS. The Court of Session in Edinburgh gave the green light to the deal after a legal hearing lasting all day.

The move came after shareholders of the two banking giants voted before Christmas in favour of the tie-up. Meanwhile, both banks confirmed that taxpayers are set to own almost half of the new bank, 43.4%, created from the takeover. The part-nationalisation is the end result of the UK government's bail-out package it announced on 13 October last year. As part of the bailout, the government ended up with a 57.9% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland The court hearing was a largely procedural process examining the legal preparations involved in the deal. The deal is being conducted as a Scheme of Arrangement, which required court approval. Judge Lord Glennie said he was prepared to grant the orders approving the scheme. Wednesday is set to be the last day for trading in HBOS shares. The new enlarged Lloyds Banking Group should begin trading on the London Stock Exchange from next Monday. The takeover, brokered as HBOS became increasingly vulnerable in last autumn's financial crisis, will be one of the sector's biggest ever deals. The "super bank" that will be created will boast around 145,000 staff and 3,000 branches.