Britain sells 7.8% of Lloyds bank for $6.9 billion

Britain has sold an extra 7.8-per cent stake in bailed-out Lloyds Banking Group for 4.2 billion pound (USD 6.9 billion), it said today.

The latest sale, pitched at 75.5 pence per share to institutional investors, takes the state's overall holding from 32.7 per cent to 24.9 per cent, the Treasury said in a statement.

Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government had already sold a 6.0-per cent tranche in September for 3.2 billion pound, at 75 pence per share, as it seeks to return LBG to the private sector.

"I can confirm this morning that we have sold a further 4.2 billion pound of shares in Lloyds Banking Group at 75.5 pence a share, taking the taxpayer's stake down to below a quarter of the bank," said Conservative finance minister George Osborne in the statement.

"This represents good value for the taxpayer and the money will again be used to reduce the national debt."

"This is another step in the government's long term economic plan to deliver a more secure and resilient economy. It is another step in repairing the banks, in reducing our national debt and in getting the taxpayer's money back."

UK Financial Investments (UKFI), which manages the state's bank holdings, had already announced late yesterday that it would seek to sell about 7.5 per cent.

Banking giant Lloyds was bailed out at the top of the 2008 financial crisis with 20 billion pound of government money.

Lloyds Banking Group was created by a merger of Lloyds TSB and rival British lender HBOS amid the global financial crisis. However, HBOS was saddled with toxic or high-risk property investments, and LBG subsequently received a vast state bailout under the then-Labour government.