Government reduces stake in Lloyds to below 3%

The government has reduced its remaining shareholding in Lloyds Bank to below 3%.

Related topics:  Finance News
Rozi Jones
15th March 2017
Lloyds
"Based on the current Lloyds share price, selling its remaining stake in the bank would net the Exchequer somewhere in the region of £1.5 billion"

The latest sales mean the government has recovered over £19.5 billion of the £20.3 billion injected into Lloyds during the financial crisis.

Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Kirby, said: "Lloyds’ recent annual results show that we are in a good position to reduce our shareholding further and expect to recover all of the money taxpayers injected into the bank during the financial crisis."

Laith Khalaf, Senior Analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, commented: "The finish line is now within sight for the UK taxpayer, who can look forward to recovering all the money pumped into Lloyds during the financial crisis. Meanwhile Lloyds continues to make ground in its quest to become a normal, fully privatized bank.

"Lloyds’ share price was badly hit by Brexit; it plummeted by more than a third in the fortnight following the referendum result. Since then Lloyds has recovered much of its poise, thanks to some decent numbers from the bank itself and from the wider economy, and the shares now trade close to where they stood before the Brexit vote.

"Based on the current Lloyds share price, selling its remaining stake in the bank would net the Exchequer somewhere in the region of £1.5 billion, comfortably taking it over the threshold needed to break even on the bailout.

"For the Treasury, the elephant in the room is of course RBS, which soaked up £45.5 billion of taxpayer funding during the financial crisis, more than twice the sum needed to prop Lloyds up. Progress has been slow at RBS, and the cost of US litigation still looms large in its immediate future.

"The RBS share price needs to double from its current level before the taxpayer breaks even on the bailout, and that isn’t happening anytime soon."

More like this
Latest from Property Reporter
Latest from Protection Reporter
CLOSE
Subscribe
to our newsletter

Join a community of over 30,000 intermediaries and keep up-to-date with industry news and upcoming events via our newsletter.