The Chancellor has today announced that the government has sold a further £500m of Lloyds Banking Group shares through the trading plan that was launched in December 2014, taking the total amount of money recovered for the taxpayer from the bank to just under £8bn.
The latest sales mean that the government’s stake in the bank has reduced from around 40% to 24%.
The government remains committed to restoring Lloyds to private ownership in a way which gets the best value for the taxpayer. All shares sold through the trading plan have been sold above the average price the previous government paid for them, which was 73.6p.
The Chancellor George Osborne said:
I am delighted to announce today that the trading plan I launched in December has raised a further £500m for the taxpayer so far. This is further progress in returning Lloyds Banking Group to private ownership, reducing our national debt and getting taxpayers’ money back.
The trading plan and its success are only made possible by our long term economic plan which is delivering a more secure and resilient economy.
A trading plan involves gradually selling shares in the market over time, in an orderly and measured way. The trading plan, which was launched on 17 December 2014, will continue for approximately four months, ending no later than 30 June.
As required by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules, Lloyds Banking Group announced today that the government’s shareholding in the bank had crossed through a one percentage point threshold. This announcement notifies the market that the government has reduced its shareholding in Lloyds by a 1% threshold, in this case to below 24%.