The government has announced that it is extending its Lloyds Banking Group share sale for a further six months.
On Monday the government confirmed it had also sold off a further 1% of its shares in the business, taking the taxpayer’s stake to below 19%.
The latest sale mean that the government has recovered almost £3.5bn for the taxpayer from the trading plan, bringing the total recovered from Lloyds to over £10.5bn.
The plan, launched in December 2014, was due to end no later than the 30 June 2015 but now it set to close by 31 December 2015.
Shares have been sold through the trading plan for an average price of over 80p, above the average 73.6p originally paid for the shares.
The government originally took a 41% stake in the bank after it injected some £20bn into the bank at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.
The Chancellor George Osborne said he was “determined to get on with the job of returning Lloyds to private ownership”.
“That’s why I’m extending the plan for six months so that we can make even more progress in returning money to the taxpayer and paying down the national debt,” he added.
The government also reiterated that it would launch a share sale open to retail investors in the next 12 months. The Treasury confirmed that further details would follow in due course.
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