Lloyds bailout completed

The government has announced that all of the government’s shares in Lloyds acquired during the financial crisis have now been sold. The sale of the final tranche of shares in the Lloyds Banking Group brings the amount recovered through sales and dividends to £21.2 billion. This means that taxpayers have received back almost £900 million more than was used to prop up the bank during the financial crisis nine years ago.The first share sales in September 2013 and March 2014 were through accelerated bookbuilds (ABBs). ABBs involve selling a large block of shares to institutional investors overnight.Further sales were made using two trading plans which ran from December 2014 to June 2016, and from October 2016 to May 2017. The trading plans involve drip-feeding shares into the market every day over an extended period. Plans for a retail sale were launched but never came to fruition and the sales are continuing via a trading plan. All proceeds from the sales are being used to reduce the national debt.