Lloyds Banking Group chairman Victor Blank today apologised to shareholders who lost money from the bank's financial crisis last year, and warned that trading conditions remained tough.
'The board and I are sorry about the decline in our share price and the financial difficulties that the temporary suspension of our dividend have caused shareholders,' Blank said.
He also said that the bank expects 'a significant contraction in economic activity this year in the UK'.
Today's AGM capped a tumultuous year in Lloyds' history during which it acquired HBOS in a government-engineered takeover designed to prevent its heavily leveraged rival from succumbing to the global banking crisis.
Weeks later, the combined bank surrendered a 43% stake to the British state in return for an emergency £17 billion injection of taxpayers' money.
Investors expressed disappointment over the bank's controversial takeover as they gathered for the lender's annual general meeting. Opponents of the takeover, who argue that it exposed conservatively-run Lloyds to billions of pounds in risky loans and investments built up by HBOS, have focused much of their ire on Blank, who played a central role in the deal.
