Lloyds Bank chief says full privatisation ‘within sight’

Lloyds Banking Group chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said a return of the company to full private ownership was “within sight” and praised a plan that allowed the British government to sell shares in the open market.

The government has reduced its stake in the bank, bailed out during the 2007-9 financial crisis, to 18% from 43%. The rate of its sell-down accelerated this year after Morgan Stanley was mandated to sell shares through a trading plan known as a “dribble-out”.

“I personally think that the dribble-out was a really smart thing to do because it enabled the government to sell without any concerns about inside information,” Mr Horta-Osorio told the British Bankers Association’s (BBA) annual retail conference yesterday.

“It’s just a blind programme where they sell 15%, on average, of daily [trading] volumes and they have increased the number of shares sold at higher prices without discounts.”

Britain spent a combined £66bn (€92bn) rescuing Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland during the crisis and Tory chancellor George Osborne is keen to sell its shares in the banks as soon as possible.

Shares in Lloyds are currently trading above the price which the government paid for them, putting it in a position to make a profit on the shares.