UK government plans US$3b Lloyds retail share sale in spring 2016

[LONDON] Britain's finance ministry will sell at least 2 billion pounds (S$4.35 billion) in Lloyds Banking Group to retail investors in spring 2016 as part of plans to return the bank to full private ownership, it said on Monday.

The shares will be offered to retail investors at a discount of 5 percent to the market price, with a bonus share for every 10 shares for those who hold their investment for more than a year. The value of the bonus share incentive will be capped at 200 pounds per investor, the Treasury said in a statement.

Lloyds needed to tap 20.5 billion pounds from the public purse to avert collapse at the peak of the financial crisis in 2008, which left the government with a 43 per cent stake.

Britain's government has recouped almost three-quarters of the taxpayer cash used in the rescue of the bank through sales of shares to institutional investors. It now owns just under 12 per cent of the lender.

REUTERS