Lloyds retail share sale confirmed ‘in next 12 months’

lloyds

“Further details will be set out in due course,” the Treasury added.

Mr Osborne has previously pledged to make some Lloyds shares available to small investors – at a discount to the market price – as part of the share sell-off, reports The BBC.

The government also said it would extend its plan to sell off shares in Lloyds to the end of the year.
The scheme was originally due to end at the end of June, but will now finish on 31 December.

The Treasury said the extension of the sale would help it meet Chancellor George Osborne’s pledge to sell a further £9bn Lloyds shares in 2015-16.

The government also announced on Monday that it had sold a further 1per cent of shares in the bank, taking its stake below 19 per cent.

The government originally owned a 41 per cent stake in the bank after ploughing £20bn into the bank during the 2008 financial crisis.

It started selling Lloyds shares in 2013, and the latest sale means it has now raised more than £10.5bn.

Mr Osborne said the share sell-off so far had been a “huge success” and said that extending the programme would help it to return more money to the taxpayer and help to reduce the national debt.