Britain's bailed-out Lloyds Banking Group said Thursday that it will sell another tranche of shares in its TSB division. LBG said in a statement that it will offload 11.5 percent of TSB or 57.5 million shares, worth about £160 million ($260 million, 205 million euros), in a placing to institutional investors.
"Following the sale the group expects to retain approximately 50 percent of the issued share capital of TSB," LBG said. As part of its turnaround strategy and in order to meet European Union state aid rules, Lloyds relaunched TSB as a standalone lender last year, rebranding more than 600 of its branches. The group subsequently sold off 38.5 percent of TSB in a partial stock market flotation in June.
LBG itself remains 25 percent-owned by the British government, despite recent reductions to the stake as the bank recovers from a massive state bailout during the 2008 financial crisis. Lloyds has previously stated that it intends to complete a full sale of its TSB stake by the end of 2015.