UK sells €5bn of bank shares

The UK government has sold £4.2bn (€5bn) worth of shares in Lloyds Banking Group to cut its stake in the country’s largest retail bank to under 25% and putting it on course for a complete exit in the next year.

Finance minster George Osborne said yesterday’s sale represents good value for the taxpayer and the proceeds would be used to reduce Britain’s national debt.

“It is another step in repairing the banks, in reducing our national debt and in getting the taxpayers’ money back,” Osborne said.

Britain’s taxpayers stand to make a slim profit on the £20bn pumped in to rescue Lloyds in 2009, which analysts and bankers said should encourage the government to speed up its exit.

Banking sources havesaid another sizeable sale is expected this summer or autumn and a full exit is possible before the British general election in May 2015.

“Ideally they want to be out before the next election but a lot depends on market conditions,” said Gary Greenwood, an analyst at Shore Capital.

The next sale is expected to include an offer to retail investors, which sources familiar with the matter said will be easier to do once there is greater clarity over the prospects for Lloyds resuming dividend payments.

UK Financial Investments, the body that manages the government’s stakes in both Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, said yesterday, it sold a 7.8% stake in Lloyds, or 5.6 billion shares, at 75.5p a share.

It marked the biggest ever share sale via the accelerated book building process outside of the US.