Mixed earnings as UK majors digest Brexit
July 28, 2016/ Jamie Legg / News
Despite more than doubling its pre-tax profit to £2.5bn, Lloyds announced in its interim results it would be cutting costs by £1.4bn by the end of 2017 through closing an additional 200 branches and trimming 3,000 jobs. Herme’s senior credit analyst Filippo Alloatti discusses with Portfolio Adviser the concerns of Lloyds’ guidance on capital generation and asset quality. Amid a flurry of interim results, Lloyds fell short of its dividend objective, while British American Tobacco and AstraZeneca were buoyed by organic growth and product innovation. EdenTree’s portfolio manager Ketan Patel talks to Portfolio Adviser about the encouraging signs of AstraZeneca’s interim results.