Government sells 7.8% of Lloyds for over £4bn

The government last night sold another 7.8% of Lloyds Banking Group to institutions in its continued effort to return the government-backed bank to shareholders.

The Treasury sold 5.35bn of shares at 75.5p - just below yesterday's closing price of 79p - raising £4.2bn in total. The latest sale of Lloyds shares by HM Treasury is the largest yet, reducing the stake it holds in the bank from 32.7% to 24.9%. UK Financial Investments, which oversees the government's holdings in the lender, confirmed the sale was pending on Tuesday and said the price of the shares would be set by an accelerated bookbuilding process. Shares were subsequently offloaded to a number of institutions. Many fund groups, including Fidelity and Standard Life Investments, ...