Lloyds Banking Group: UK Government Cuts Stake to 2.95% -- Update
March 15 2017 - 4:00AM
Dow Jones News
By Ian Walker
LONDON--Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LLOY.LN) Wednesday said the
U.K. government has lowered its shareholding in the bank to 2.1
billion shares, or about 2.95% of its issued share capital.
The U.K. government previously held 2.78 billion shares.
No price was disclosed for the share sale, which was conducted
on Tuesday. However, the U.K. Treasury said the latest sales take
the total money recovered to over 19.5 billion pounds ($23.73
billion) of the GBP20.3 billion taxpayers injected into Lloyds
during the financial crisis, once share sales and dividends
received are accounted for.
The government is putting money raised from the sale toward
reducing the national debt.
"Lloyds' recent annual results show that we are in a good
position to reduce our shareholding further and expect to recover
all of the money taxpayers injected into the bank during the
financial crisis," Economic Secretary to the Treasury Simon Kirby,
said.
Lloyds, the U.K.'s biggest retail bank, was bailed out by U.K.
taxpayers during the financial crisis, with the government taking a
39% stake. The government started selling its shares in the bank in
late 2013.
Last October, U.K. Treasury Chief Philip Hammond said the
government would begin to sell its remaining 9.1% stake in Lloyds
in a piecemeal fashion, after withdrawing a planned retail sale,
attributing its decision to market volatility.
Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com; @IanWalk40289749
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 15, 2017 03:45 ET (07:45 GMT)
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