Lloyds Bank sell-off to recall 1980s privatisation

Britain will launch a sale of shares in Lloyds to private retail investors in the next 12 months in what is expected to be the biggest privatisation since Margaret Thatcher’s government sold off assets in the 1980s.

It has also extended a facility enabling it to sell more shares in the bank to financial institutions as it disposes of its remaining stake of less than 19% in the bailed-out lender, worth about £12bn (€16.7bn).

As well as raising money for the state, the 1980s sales aimed to encourage ordinary Britons to invest in companies, an aspiration shared by the current Conservative government.