Britain’s government has sold just about 1 percent of its stake in Lloyd’s bank for £500 million ($769 million). The Treasury announced in a statement today that the sale of its shares in state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group, which raised half a billion pounds, has trimmed the government’s stake from 24.9 percent to just under 23.9 percent.
Britain still owns a large chunk of Lloyds after bailing it out with £20 billion of taxpayers’ cash at the height of the 2008 global financial crisis. The government initially took a 39-percent share of Lloyds, but plans to return it to private ownership. So far, it has raised almost £8.0 billion selling bits of its holding.
In December, Finance minister George Osborne revealed a six-month plan to reduce the stake. “I am delighted to announce today that the trading plan I launched in December has raised a further £500 million for the taxpayer so far,” Osborne said Monday, according to the Daily mail. “This is further progress in returning Lloyds Banking Group to private ownership, reducing our national debt and getting taxpayers’ money back.
The latest shares were sold above the average price that the previous government had paid for them, which was 73.6 pence. Lloyds will announce its full year 2014 results on Friday with shareholders are in line for first dividend since 2007. The bank is expected to report annual pre-tax profits of around £2 billion, up from £415 million a year earlier, after putting aside another £600 million to compensate customers mis-sold payment protection insurance.
