The government has continued to sell shares in Lloyds Banking
Group, reducing its remaining shareholding to less than 4%.
The latest sales, conducted via the trading plan, mean the
government has recovered over £19 billion of the £20.3 billion
taxpayers injected into Lloyds during the financial crisis, once
share sales and dividends received are accounted for.
Economic Secretary to the Treasury, , said:
Since the decision to sell the government’s stake in Lloyds we
have now recovered over £19 billion for the taxpayer.
Lloyds’ strong annual results show that we are in a good
position to continue to reduce our shareholding and recover all
of the money the tax-payer injected into the bank during the
financial crisis.
A trading plan involves gradually selling shares in the market
over time, in an orderly and measured way. The Lloyds trading
plan initially ran from 17 December 2014 to 31 June 2016. The
government announced on 7 October
2016 that further sales of Lloyds shares would also be
made through a trading plan.
On 9 January 2017, the government
announced it had passed a significant milestone in
returning Lloyds to the private sector when it confirmed it was
no longer the bank’s largest shareholder.
As required by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules, Lloyds
Banking Group announced today that the government’s shareholding
in the bank has crossed through a one percentage point threshold
– therefore notifying the market that the government has reduced
its shareholding in Lloyds to below 4%.
All proceeds from the sales are used to reduce the national debt.
