Lloyds share sale earns Treasury £500m

The Treasury has now recovered £8.5b of the £20b of taxpayer money used to bail out the bank in 2008

The Treasury had a 40 per cent stake in Lloyds after it bailed out the bank with £20 billion of taxpayer money in 2009 (Getty Images)

The Treasury has sold off taxpayer-owned shares in Lloyds Banking Group during the past fortnight to earn £500 million.

It takes the total raised since Morgan Stanley was asked to start selling shares in the stock market in December to more than £1 billion.

Lloyds said the Treasury’s holding is now just below 23%.

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Following the £20 billion taxpayer bailout of Lloyds after its ill-fated takeover of HBOS in 2009, it had a 40% stake.

Lloyds shares have risen from 79.2p to 80.8p since Lloyds reported strong, 2014 profits at the end of last month.

Chancellor George Osborne tweeted: “Delighted that we have raised a further £500 million for the taxpayer through Lloyds share sales, taking total recovered to approximately £8.5 billion.”

A Lloyds spokesperson said: “Today’s announcement shows further progress made in returning Lloyds Banking Group to full private ownership.”