Taxpayer stake in rescued NatWest drops below 10%
The taxpayer’s stake in NatWest has fallen to less than 10 percent as the country moves closer to a full return to private sector ownership.
It comes after boss Paul Thwaite recently said the lender is on course to divest its stake in government bonds as early as the first half of next year.
The government bailed out the bank to the tune of £45 billion during the 2008 financial crisis to save it from collapse and at one point owned as much as 84 percent.
The company has gradually reduced its stake, but still owned 38 percent last year.
Moving on, the government bailed out NatWest to the tune of £45 billion during the 2008 financial crisis to save the country from collapse.
This has been greatly reduced over the past twelve months, both through the sale of shares to investors on the market and through repurchases by the bank itself.
The latest reduction to 9.99 percent was due to market selling. However, the government is still NatWest’s largest shareholder. In October’s budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged to sell the remainder of her stake by 2026.
A spokesperson for NatWest said: ‘Returning the bank to full private ownership is in the interests of all our stakeholders.’
Shares fell 0.9 percent to 405.5p.
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