4th Dec 2015 07:27
LONDON (Alliance News) - The UK government on Friday said it will extend the trading plan it is using to sell its shares in Lloyds Banking Group PLC on the stock exchange, before putting a stop to the institutional sales programme ahead of a planned retail share sale.
UK Financial Investments Ltd, the body responsible for managing the government's shareholdings in bailed-out banks, said the government's stake has now been reduced to 9.2% of Lloyds from 9.89% previously. The government still owns 6.6 billion shares in Lloyds, having once owned as much as 43% of the bank in the wake of a bailout in the financial crisis of 2008-09.
Between the start of the trading plan in December 2014 to date, the trading plan has seen the sale of about 11.2 billion shares in Lloyds at an average price in excess of 81.0 pence per share. Shares will not be sold in the trading plan at less than the 73.6p average price paid for them.
"The trading plan has been a huge success, with over GBP9.0 billion raised for the taxpayer so far. This means we have now recovered over GBP16.0 billion in total, and we now own 9.2% of the bank," Chancellor George Osborne said in a statement Friday.
The UK government said the trading plan will continue to be managed by Morgan Stanley & Co International PLC, UKFI added, and must be stopped earlier than June 30, 2016 for there to be enough shares left to sell to private investors. A retail share sale is due to launch in Spring 2016.
"As part of my plan to fully return Lloyds to the private sector, reduce public debt and build a stronger and safer financial system, Lloyds shares will also be offered to retail investors in spring 2016. This will allow hardworking people to buy a stake in our economy and help to build a share owning democracy," Osborne added.
Goldman Sachs International is acting as privatisation strategy adviser to UKFI. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP is acting as legal counsel to UKFI in respect of English and US law.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Lloyds