Government brings stake in Lloyds under 23%

9th Mar 2015 08:34

The British government has sold £500m worth of shares in Lloyds Banking Group, bringing its stake in the bank down from 40% to 22.8%.The sale brings the amount of money raised through HM Treasury's trading plan in the lender to over £1bn.The Treasury said that the scheme, introduced in December, has seen shares sold above 73.6 pence per share average price the previous government paid for them when it rescued the bank in the wake of the financial crisis at a cost of £20bn."These sales are part of our plan to return Lloyds to the private sector and get taxpayers' money back," the Chancellor George Osborne said in a statement."The proceeds will be used to reduce the national debt."The bank, which paid its first dividend in over six years late in February, said the government's decision to reduce its stake was proof the bank was on track to return to private ownership."Today's announcement shows further progress made in returning Lloyds Banking Group to full private ownership and enabling the taxpayer to get their money back," a spokesman said.Analysts at Investec Securities reaffirmed their 'buy' rating on the stock, adding that the government's decision was "manifestly good news"."With Lloyds shares trading at a 12-month high, we think It is manifestly good news for shareholders and taxpayers alike that such share price appreciation has been achieved in tandem with an acceleration in the pace of sell-down of the UK Government's residual stake," they said in a note.Lloyds shares were down 0.65% to 80.90p at 09:00 on Monday.