The UK government has reduced its ownership of Lloyds bank to below 6 percent, meaning it is no longer the largest shareholder.
In an update given to the stock market on Monday, the Treasury said its holding now stood at 5.95 percent after selling a further 700,000 shares. This development leaves the world’s biggest fund manager, Blackrock, with the biggest stake.
The Treasury aims to return Lloyds to full private ownership this year, after it pumped £20.3 billion into the bank in the wake of the financial crisis. Although it has been selling shares at below the average price, the Treasury has since received £17.5 billion from share sales.
According to the Guardian, the Treasury did not disclose the price it received but the closing price of Lloyds shares on Friday, the day of the sale, was 65.68p, meaning that a sale at that price would have raised £460,000.
Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive of Lloyds, commented: “Today’s announcement that the UK Government is no longer our largest shareholder is a key milestone in the journey of Lloyds Banking Group back to full private ownership, returning taxpayers’ money at a profit.”
Finance Minister Philip Hammond is leading the sales in order to regain cash that was pumped into both Lloyds and the failing Royal Bank of Scotland in the wake of the 2008 crash. The sale of Lloyds shares by the government at below-market price was halted last year after a global stock market rout, and abandoned entirely after the Brexit vote.
“Returning Lloyds to the private sector and recovering all of the cash the taxpayer injected into the bank during the financial crisis is a priority for the government,” Hammond said.
Lloyds (LON:LLOY) shares are currently trading down 0.93 percent at 65.31 (0920GMT).