Lloyds group in cash battle

AROUND 100 Lloyds TSB shareholders met last night to discuss their battle for compensation in the wake of the HBOS takeover.

Lawyers fighting on behalf of the Lloyds Action Now campaign said they were "very confident" of success. Around 1250 private investors have already signed up for the bid to recoup some of the 2 million estimated to have been lost. They plan to target the Treasury and directors of Lloyds who sanctioned the merger, and say Lloyds failed to disclose the full state of HBOS's finances when it asked shareholders to vote on the takeover.

Campaign spokesman Adrian Lithgow told the audience at last night's meeting: "We haven't set a target for how many shareholders we want to sign up to the campaign, but we are talking tens of thousands."