LONDON—Lloyds Banking Group PLC said first-quarter net profit fell 44% to £ 531 million ($774 million) after it was hit by a series of restructuring charges.

The British retail bank, in which the U.K. government has a stake of around 9%, said income dropped 1% to £ 4.4 billion in the quarter. Underlying profit, which strips out a series of one-off charges, amounted to £ 2.1 billion, down 6% compared with the corresponding period a year earlier.

As with other lenders, Lloyds has been struggling with low interest rates which have eaten into profitability. The bank was also hit by the cost of splitting out and selling around 600 branches to form a new stand-alone bank.

The lender also took a £ 790 million loss on high interest-paying bonds it issued to investors during the financial crisis and which have been redeemed.

Write to Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 28, 2016 03:25 ET (07:25 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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