By Elena Vardon


The U.K. government has reduced its stakeholding in British lender NatWest to 26.95% from 27.93%, regulatory filings showed on Monday.

The Treasury's disposal was completed on March 10, according to the filings. It now holds 9.40 billion shares which are worth 30.02 billion pounds ($37.61 billion) based on Friday's closing price of 319.30 pence.

The U.K.'s stake in the bank resulted from the government's 2008 bailout of Royal Bank of Scotland, which bought NatWest in 2000 and rebranded the enlarged company as NatWest Group in 2020. The government spent GBP45.5 billion pounds of taxpayer money on the bailout and at one point owned 84% of the bank.

Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt plans to start a retail sale to sell down part of its stake this summer at the earliest, he said in his Spring Budget. The government intends to return the bank to private ownership in 2025 or 2026.

NatWest shares--which are up 46% since the start of the year--were up 0.5% higher at 320.90 pence at 0942 GMT, while the FTSE 100 traded flat.


Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-13-24 0609ET