The UK government has sold 10 percent of Lloyds Banking Group in the past five months through its trading plan, reducing its stake to less than 15 per cent.<\/p>\n
Lloyds was rescued during the 2007\/09 financial crisis, costing UK taxpayers \u00a320.5 billion and leaving the government with a 43 per cent stake.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s finance ministry began selling its shares in September 2013 and is on track to return the bank to full private ownership next year.<\/p>\n
Finance minister George Osborne has said he wants to return Britain\u2019s banking assets to the private sector at a faster pace and is also looking to sell at least three quarters of the government\u2019s stake in Royal Bank of Scotland over the next five years.<\/p>\n
The latest Lloyds share sales have reduced the government\u2019s stake to 14.98 per cent, from 15.9 per cent previously, the bank said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The sale of shares in Lloyds brings the total recovered for taxpayers to more than 13 billion pounds ($20 billion), according to a separate statement from the Treasury.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am determined to build on this success, and to continue to return Lloyds to the private sector and reduce our national debt,\u201d Osborne said in the statement.<\/p>\n
If the government sold its remaining stake in Lloyds at today\u2019s price, it would raise another 9.2 billion pounds, increasing the total to more than 21 billion pounds.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s almost 700 million pounds more than taxpayers spent to bail out the lender during the financial crisis. Lloyds stock has risen 13 per cent this year.<\/p>\n
In contrast, selling the entire Treasury stake in RBS at the share price at the time of the report would have lost about \u00a37 billion.<\/p>\n
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