Government to make £2.7bn profit from Lloyds bailout

This includes upholding the promise made to retail shareholders offering them a 5% discount, and one-for-ten bonus shares, as part of the public share sale.

Just to break even on the Lloyds bailout, the government only needs to sell the shares for 7.5p each, according to the calculation.

This is much lower than the previously announced breakeven price, as it takes into account the fees received by the Treasury from Lloyds for underwriting loans in 2009.

The government initially invested £20,313 million in Lloyds, spread across three tranches throughout 2009.

It sold about three quarters of its stake between September 2013 and March 2016 for a total of £16,571 million.

The Treasury has also received, or is due to receive, £373 million in dividends as well as £2,881 million in fees, largely made up of Lloyds’ exit fee from the Asset Protection Scheme.

Hargreaves Lansdown says that it over 350,000 private shareholders have registered an interest in the share sale through the firm.

Laith Khalaf, Senior Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The government has now made enough money from the Lloyds bailout that it can comfortably make good on its promise to offer shares to the public, while still making a tidy profit for the Treasury.

"However the changes to the Cabinet following the referendum have raised questions over whether the government still intends to proceed with the public offer of Lloyds shares.

"City institutions are no doubt licking their lips at the prospect the new Chancellor might cut private investors out the Lloyds share sale. But this would be taken as a breach of trust by hundreds of thousands of retail investors, who have been repeatedly told by the government that a share offer is coming.

"Clearly the Chancellor has a lot on his plate right now, but investors would welcome some certainty over the share sale, so they can plan their financial affairs accordingly."