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<p>On 17 December 2014 the Chancellor authorised the sale of a third part of the government’s
shareholding in Lloyds Banking Group via a trading plan. The plan is ongoing and will
end no later than 30 June 2015. Morgan Stanley act as broker on behalf of HM Treasury
to execute the trading plan.</p><p> </p><p>Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules
require HMG as seller to inform the market each time its shareholding has crossed
through a one percentage point threshold, which is typically released via RNS by the
company. Lloyds have therefore released two such statements since the launch of the
trading plan, on 23 February and 9 March 2015. These contain details of the government’s
remaining shareholding in Lloyds. On both occasions, the government released a statement
confirming these announcements.</p><p> </p><p>On 9 March 2015 the government confirmed
that the total amount of money raised through the trading plan was over £1bn and that
the government’s shareholding in Lloyds had fallen below 23%.</p><p> </p><p>As I informed
the House in my written statement on 18 December, a statement will be laid before
Parliament with further details at the end of the plan. In order to get the best deal
for the taxpayer, I will not provide a running commentary on the price of shares and
the precise number sold while the trading plan is ongoing. However, the Chancellor
has made clear that no shares will be sold below the average price the previous government
paid for them (i.e. 73.6p).</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
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