George Osborne has ruled out a full-scale public offering of the Treasury’s remaining shares in Lloyds Banking Group ahead of the General Election.
The taxpayer still owns 25% of Lloyds following its £20 billion bail-out in 2009.
The Treasury has already cut its stake from 40% through two share sales to institutions and could well do more of these before May 2015.
But the Chancellor has decided that market conditions are not right for a more complicated public offer for sale of shares.
Sources said there had been only a narrow window of opportunity for such a sale during this autumn.
The Treasury cited other reasons including the Scottish independence referendum and the Bank of England’s bank stress tests for putting off any public offer.
Lloyds also has yet to resume paying dividends to shareholders, which was seen a key factor in attracting public enthusiasm for any wider share sale.
The Treasury has already raised £7 billion through selling Lloyds shares to institutions and at today’s share price of 73p its remaining 25% stake is valued at £13 billion.
