Possible Insider Trading of HBOS Shares. Minutes Before Broadcast Of News On HBOS Sale, 22 Million Shares Traded

London, England (AHN) - Speculations are rife there was insider trading prior to the sale of the Halifax Bank of Scotland to Lloyds TSB last week. The insider traders earned at least $350 million from the deal.

Prior to the 9 a.m. broadcast of BBC business editor Robert Peston on Wednesday in which the HBOS sales was announced, the mortgage lender's stock had plummeted to 88 pence a share. Within 45 minutes of Peston's broadcast, the shares of HBOS rose to 215 pence.

Two large deals were made three and two minutes to broadcast time in which the buyer purchased over 22 million HBOS shares for 96 pence a share. A total of 160 million shares were traded right before Peston's newscast, which he made from his home. The two largest purchasers bought 10 million and 12.4 million shares each. The two traders made an estimated $350 million (190 million pound) profit from the sale.

Commenting on an obvious leak, Ketih Skeoch, chief of Standard Life Investments, said, "Someone was in possession of information and that information was leaked, which caused a movement in HBOS' share price... The market has a mechanism for release of information. It must be adhered to if we want to stop market abuse - and we must stop market abuse."

Meanwhile, news of another buy-in caused stocks to Bradford and Bingley to leap by 17 percent. B and B reportedly have three interested purchasers - foreign banks Santander, ING and NAB. It is U.K.'s sole stand-alone mortgage lender after HBOS was bought by Lloyds TBS, Alliance and Leicester was purchased by Santander and Northern Rock was nationalized.

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