The government has offloaded more of its share in Lloyds bank, raising £586 million.
The stake held by the taxpayer is now 21%, down from the 41% held after the government ploughed £20 billion into the bank to stop it from collapsing during the height of the financial crisis in 2008.
The government started the sell off of Lloyds shares in 2013, and following the latest sale it has now raised £8 billion.
The sale comes after prime minister David Cameron said if the Conservative party was re-elected it would sell £4 billion of Lloyds shares to private investors in order to ‘help us recover billions more to pay down the national debt’.
In the latest sale the government sold 742 million shares raising £586 million, based on Thursday’s price. However, the total raised may be lower as the sale would have happened during the day and Lloyds share rose during the say to a closing high of 78.9p.
‘Today’s announcement shows the further progress made in returning Lloyds Banking Group to full private ownership and enabling the taxpayer to get their money back,’ Lloyds said in a statement.
‘This reflects the hard work undertaken over the last four years to transform the group into a simple, low-risk and customer-focused bank that is committed to helping Britain prosper.’
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