Government sells a slice of Lloyds

The government sold £3.3 billions’ worth of shares in Lloyds at 75p a share, making a modest profit on its original ‘bail out’ investment during the financial crisis five years ago, and reducing its share stake in the bank to 32.7%. About half the shares were bought by overseas investors and the rest by City institutions.

The Financial Times expects the government to sell a much larger stake in Lloyds next year in an offer that will give individual investors the opportunity to buy shares.