Britain cuts Lloyds bank stake to below 20 percent

Britain has cut its stake in state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group to just under 20 percent after offloading another chunk of shares, the government said Tuesday. The Treasury announced in a statement that it has sold about 2.0 percent of Lloyds for another £500 million ($784 million, 697 million euros) under ongoing plans to return it to private ownership.
The sale - which cuts the state's holding to 19.93 percent - comes one week after the Conservatives won Britain's general election in a surprise victory. The government has trimmed its stake by 5.0 percent in the past three months, raising about £2.5 billion. Britain has now recouped more than half of the £20 billion in bailout funds pumped into Lloyds at the height of the 2008 global financial crisis. The government initially took a 39-percent share.