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British gov't extends Lloyds share sale to end of year

Xinhua, June 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

British government confirmed on Monday that it would extend its plan to sell off shares in Lloyds Banking Group to the end of the year.

Lloyds received 20 billion pounds of government support during the financial crisis, with the government taking a 40 percent stake. The state bailout avoided the bank's collapse.

UK Financial Investment (UKFI), which administered the government's stake, launched a trading plan designed to reduce the publicy-owned stake in Lloyds over a six-month period last December, ending June 30 this year.

However, the Treasury on Monday announced the sale scheme would now be extended to the 31 December.

The Treasury said the extra six months would contribute towards meeting the commitment the Chancellor made to sell at least a further 9 billion pounds of Lloyds shares in 2015-2016.

The government also revealed that it had sold a further 1 percent of its stake in Lloyds, reducing the government's holding to below 19 percent.

"The trading plan has been a huge success, with almost 3.5 billion pounds raised for the taxpayer so far. This means we have now recovered over 10.5 billion pounds in total, more than half of the taxpayers' money put into Lloyds, and we now own under 19 percent of the bank," said the Chancellor George Osborne.

"But we're 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," Osborne added.

As part of its plan to return Lloyds to the private sector, the government announced Monday that it would launch a share sale which would be open to retail investors in the next 12 months.

"Further details will be set out in due course," the Treasury added. Endit