Lloyds sells off £1bn private equity investment portfolio

The Times reports the state-backed lender sold the portfolio yesterday to Coller Capital, a specialist buyer of existing private equity investments founded by Fidelity's former head of research Jeremy Coller. The deal, which was made up of 71 investments in private equity funds managed by other groups, is thought to be the biggest deal of its type in the "secondary" investment market. Lloyds, which is just under 40%-owned by the taxpayer, said that it expected to make a pre-tax profit from the sale, at a price just under the gross asset value of the portfolio of £1.05bn. The portfol...