Lloyds Banking Group share price dips as government slashes its stake
Shares in Lloyds Banking Group dipped to 86.9p this morning after it emerged the government had cut its stake in the bailed-out bank to less than 17 per cent.
This could be among the final tranches of shares sold to institutional investors: chancellor George Osborne has said the government was planning to wrap up its current sale of shares to institutions by the end of December before embarking on a "Tell Sid"-style selloff.
The government has hired Goldman Sachs to advise on the sale of shares of both Lloyds and RBS, of which the government owns 81 per cent.
"The trading plan has been a huge success, with almost £3.5bn raised for the taxpayer so far," he said. "This means we have now recovered over £10.5bn in total, more than half of the taxpayers' money put into Lloyds."
Details of the sale to retail investors will be announced "in due course", said the chancellor.