London - The UK government sold 500 million pounds of shares in Lloyds Banking Group PLC as part of a plan to cut its stake in the nation’s largest mortgage lender before elections in May.
Lloyds stock was sold above the average price of 73.6 pence apiece the previous government paid, trimming Britain’s stake to 22.98 percent, the Treasury said in a statement on Monday. The sale takes the total sold under a trading plan started in December to more than 1 billion pounds.
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is recovering money from Lloyds as he maps out spending plans next week and tries to convince voters his Conservatives are best- positioned to shepherd Britain’s economy before a general election on May 7. Taxpayers have now recouped about 8.5 billion pounds from the bank, which was bailed out with more than 20 billion pounds to save it from collapse in 2008.
“These sales are part of our plan to return Lloyds to the private sector and get taxpayers’ money back,” Osborne said in the statement. “I am delighted that we’ve raised a further 500 million pounds for the taxpayer.”
The stock fell 0.7 percent to 80.88 pence at 9.10am in London trading. The shares are up 6.7 percent this year.
Lloyds said last month it will resume dividend payments after reporting its first annual profit in five years. The Treasury will get at least another 100 million pounds from that payout.
Bloomberg