British government reduces stake in Lloyds to below 9 percent
The British government said yesterday it had reduced its stake in Lloyds Banking Group to just below 9 percent, its first sale since the relaunch of a trading plan that was shelved almost a year ago because of market turbulence.
Earlier this month, UK Financial Investments Limited (UKFI), which manages the government''s stake in the bailed-out Lloyds bank, said it would resume share sales in a bid to return Lloyds to full private ownership over the next 12 months.
The government sold about one percent of Lloyds'' shares on the same day the bank defied expectations of a post-Brexit squeeze on earnings by reporting third-quarter profits largely unchanged from a year earlier. “Selling our shares in Lloyds and making sure that we get back all the cash taxpayers injected into it during the financial crisis is one of my top priorities as chancellor,” Finance Minister Philip Hammond said in a statement.
Lloyds was rescued with a 20.5 billion pound (US$25.05 billion) taxpayer-funded bailout during the 2007-09 financial crisis, leaving the state holding 43 percent.
In December 2014, UKFI mandated Morgan Stanley to sell the shares on the open market as long as the stock was trading above the government''s average buy-in price of 73.6 pence.
So far the government has recouped about 17 billion pounds of taxpayer cash after it began selling off its stake in 2013.
The shares, which have fallen by around a quarter since June''s referendum vote to leave the European Union, closed at 55.88 pence on Wednesday, about a third lower than the 81.4 pence average the government previously sold shares at in the earlier phase of the trading plan.
- Nampa/Reuters
The government sold about one percent of Lloyds'' shares on the same day the bank defied expectations of a post-Brexit squeeze on earnings by reporting third-quarter profits largely unchanged from a year earlier. “Selling our shares in Lloyds and making sure that we get back all the cash taxpayers injected into it during the financial crisis is one of my top priorities as chancellor,” Finance Minister Philip Hammond said in a statement.
Lloyds was rescued with a 20.5 billion pound (US$25.05 billion) taxpayer-funded bailout during the 2007-09 financial crisis, leaving the state holding 43 percent.
In December 2014, UKFI mandated Morgan Stanley to sell the shares on the open market as long as the stock was trading above the government''s average buy-in price of 73.6 pence.
So far the government has recouped about 17 billion pounds of taxpayer cash after it began selling off its stake in 2013.
The shares, which have fallen by around a quarter since June''s referendum vote to leave the European Union, closed at 55.88 pence on Wednesday, about a third lower than the 81.4 pence average the government previously sold shares at in the earlier phase of the trading plan.
- Nampa/Reuters
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