Government to sell stake in green infrastructure investment vehicle
THE GOVERNMENT is reportedly getting ready to sell off shares in its Green Investment Bank (GIB), a state-supported lender to green infrastructure projects, as part of chancellor George Osborne’s latest privatisation efforts.
Sky News reported yesterday that advisers from Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML) are working with Whitehall officials on plans to sell a stake in GIB.
The lender was launched in 2012 with £3.8bn of public funding.
Sky reported that details of the sell-off could come as soon as next month, in Osborne’s emergency summer budget on 8 July.
The government has already announced a wide-reaching privatisation programme which includes selling off the taxpayer’s stakes in Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.
When contacted by City A.M. yesterday, BoAML declined to comment. A spokesperson for GIB could not be reached for comment.