Lloyds shares to be sold to retail investors within 12 months, says Treasury
The government has sold off more of its shares in Lloyds and is planning to sell to retail investors within the next year in "Tell Sid" style sell-off.
Another one per cent has been sold off by the Treasury, reducing its stake in the bank to 19 per cent.
"The trading plan has been a huge success, with almost £3.5bn raised for the taxpayer so far. This means we have now recovered over £10.5bn in total, more than half of the taxpayers’ money put into Lloyds, and we now own under 19 per cent of the bank," said the chancellor George Osborne.
He said the share offering will also be opened up to retail investors over the next 12 months after promising to sell at least a further £9bn of shares in March's Budget, with plans for the offering to be revealed "in due course".
The current sale to institutional investors had been expected to be wrapped up by the end of June at the latest. That has now been extended to the end of the year as the Treasury seeks to offload the bank.
"But we’re determined to get on with the job of returning Lloyds to private ownership. That’s why I’m extending the plan for six months so that we can make even more progress in returning money to the taxpayer and paying down the national debt," Osborne added.
More than half the government's stake in the bank has been sold off, as of May, with six per cent sold off in the last three months alone.