Lloyds TSB has called in investment bankers to sell share-registration and stock-management business Lloyds TSB Registrars. The sale is set to be around £600m, according to the Sunday Times.

Lehman Brothers were appointed last month to handle the sale, which came about when Chief Executive Eric Daniels decided late last year that Registrars was no longer a core part of the group.

This sale follows that of Lloyds’ Brazilian division and the National Bank of New Zealand, along with Goldfish credit cards, since Daniels took over in 2003 to focus Lloyds TSB on its core UK business. 

Lloyds TSB Registrars is the UK's leading provider of share registration services. It acts as Registrar for over 800 companies including around 60% of the FTSE 100, and manage some 24 million shareholder accounts. .Bankers predicted that the sale of this profitable business will attract bids from private-equity houses as well as banks.