Lloyds Bank Raises Bid for British Rival

LONDON —  Lloyds Bank PLC on Friday sweetened its hostile bid to buy Standard Chartered PLC to the equivalent of about $1.93 billion from $1.76 billion.

A combination of the two banks would create Britain’s biggest commercial bank, with assets of more than $106 billion. The current industry leader is National Westminster Bank PLC.

Standard Chartered, which spurned Lloyd’s initial bid announced in April, also rejected the new proposal, saying the revised terms “are still demonstrably inadequate.”

Lloyds said its new offer of cash and securities values Standard Chartered’s stock at 819 pence a share, or $12.45 at current exchange rates, up from the initial offer’s value of about 750 pence, or $11.40.

On the London Stock Exchange, Standard Chartered stock fell 10 pence a share to 779 pence, or $11.84.

The London Standard newspaper reported Friday that many brokers believe Lloyds’ offer might not be topped by a rival bidder and thus could be successful.

Fifth-Largest Bank

“The market price (of Standard Chartered’s stock) has been hovering around 800 pence ($12.16) for a couple of weeks now, and it (the new offer) is a little bit ahead of that,” John Tyce of the brokerage firm Laing & Cruickshank told the newspaper.

Standard Chartered currently is Britain’s fifth-largest bank by assets, but much of its business is conducted in Asia, Africa and the United States. The company owns Los Angeles-based Union Bank of California.

Lloyds, the fourth-largest British bank, also has a strong presence in Europe, Latin America and New Zealand. By acquiring Standard Chartered, Lloyds would gain a major foothold in the Asia-Pacific region and thus create a near-global banking network, analysts have said.

Michael D. McWilliam, Standard Chartered’s group managing director, has said the British government does not plan to refer Lloyds’ offer to antitrust authorities, which could have delayed Lloyds’ effort for several months.