Postbank rises on talk of bid from Lloyds

Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:26am BST

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LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in Deutsche Postbank (DPBGn.DE) jumped 7 percent on Wednesday on market talk that Lloyds TSB (LLOY.L) was preparing a bid for the group.

"There's speculation that Lloyds is planning a 11 billion euro (8.7 billion pounds) bid for Postbank, or 67 euros a share," said one trader. Several other traders in London, Paris and Frankfurt said they were hearing the talk.

At 10:05 a.m., shares in Deutsche Postbank were up 7 percent to 58.02 euros, bouncing back from Tuesday's 4-1/2 month lows. Volume in the stock was fairly hefty, with over 70 percent of the 30-day full day average having already changed hands.

Earlier, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that ING (ING.AS), Santander (SAN.MC), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) and Lloyds were among the parties interested in Postbank.

Stock in Deutsche Post (DPWGn.DE), which controls Postbank, rose 0.5 percent.

(Reporting by Sitaraman Shankar, Amanda Cooper and Patrizia Kokot in London and Blaise Robinson in Paris)

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