Govt sells further £500m of Lloyds shares

These sales and the dividend announced by Lloyds last week will bring the total amount recovered for the taxpayer from Lloyds to approximately £8.5bn, and means that the government’s stake in the bank has reduced from around 40% in 2009 to below 23% today.

All shares sold through the trading plan have been sold above the average price the previous government paid for them, which was 73.6p. The trading plan was launched on 17 December 2014 and will end no later than 30 June.

The government previously sold £500m of Lloyds shares on the 23rd of February, which took the government’s stake in the bank to 24%.

The Chancellor George Osborne said:

"I am delighted that we’ve raised a further £500 million for the taxpayer through the trading plan I launched in December.

"These sales are part of our plan to return Lloyds to the private sector and get taxpayers’ money back. The proceeds will be used to reduce the national debt."

Last week Lloyds announced that it had increased its statutory profits before tax by 325% since last year, and that it will resume dividend payments for the first time since the crisis. The dividend will provide the Exchequer with at least another £100m this year.