The government is no longer the largest shareholder in Lloyds Banking Group, as its stake goes below 6 per cent.
These latest share sales mean the government has recovered more than £18bn of the £20.3bn taxpayers injected into Lloyds during the financial crisis, once share sales and dividends received are accounted for.
It now means BlackRock is the bank’s largest shareholder.
Chancellor Philip Hammond said: “Returning Lloyds to the private sector and recovering all of the cash the taxpayer injected into the bank during the financial crisis is a priority for the government.
“Confirmation that we are no longer the largest shareholder in the bank and that we’ve now recouped over £18bn for UK taxpayers is further evidence that we are on track to recover all of the £20bn injected into the bank during the financial crisis.”
On Friday (6 November) shares in Lloyds closed at 65.9p, down 3.6 per cent over the past 12 months.
The Lloyds trading plan initially ran from 17 December 2014 to 30 June 2016.
Former chancellor George Osborne had planned to sell the final Lloyds stake in spring this year through an offering to retail and institutional investors, with the former receiving a 5 per cent discount plus a bonus share for every 10 held for more than a year.
But this was put on hold at the beginning of this year because of market volatility.
Mr Osborne’s successor, Mr Hammond, announced on 7 October 2016 that more sales of Lloyds shares would be made through a trading plan.
At that time Mr Hammond scrapped Mr Osborne’s plans of selling the shares to retail investors completely, citing market volatility.
Financial Conduct Authority rules mean Lloyds Banking Group must announce when the government’s shareholding in the bank has crossed through a one percentage point threshold.
All proceeds from the sales are used to reduce the national debt.
damian.fantato@ft.com
