Chancellor to wait until September to sell off Lloyds stake - reports

The Chancellor will not sell any of the government's stake in Lloyds Banking Group until September, dashing recent hopes in the City of a sell-off as early as this week, according to reports.

Despite widespread expectations George Osborne would sell up to £5bn of shares within days, sources indicated he will instead wait until September, the Daily Mail reports. This could be seen as a gamble that the shares will not fall in value over the traditionally choppy summer months on the stock market. Shares in the bank rose above the average price paid by the Treasury for its stake in 2008, reaching 73¾p last week on the back of the bank's strong first half results. The Treasury paid an average of 73p for its shares, but says that it only needs 61p to break even given other re...