The government is mulling whether to sell 5% to 10% of Lloyds to money managers as soon as September, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources.
This initial transaction would be a test of appetite for a further offering of shares to both institutional and individual investors, said the report.
The Treasury would need to sell shares at 61p each in order to break-even on its original investment, according to one interpretation of its 2008 purchase.
Today the government appointed JPMorgan Chase to advise on a strategy for returning both Lloyds and RBS to private investors.
At the height of the financial crisis in 2008, the Treasury poured £37bn of capital into the UK’s major banks, including Lloyds, to avert their collapse. Today it retains a 39% stake in Lloyds, worth an estimated £18bn.
Specultation over the possible buyers of some of that stake saw Invesco Perpetual’s head of investment Neil Woodford flagged as a potential buyer – but the group soon denied those claims.
Lloyds shares have risen almost 130% to 69p over the last 12 months.
Woodford, however, said UK banks’ loan loss recognition process still has “several years to run”, and that “the prospect of dividends from the likes of Lloyds during this process is remote”.
