The government is selling Lloyds Bank – but should you buy?

The government has sold 6% of its Lloyds Bank shares to institutional investors. We're likely to see a retail share offer at some point too. Should you buy in?

Governments are notoriously bad at market timing. One of the best investment opportunities of the century so far came when Gordon Brown started selling Britain's gold reserves in the early 2000s for example. So now that the government is flogging off its stake in Lloyds, should you be interested?

We'll get to that in a moment. First, let's take a look at what's happened. Various City institutions have together bought a 6% stake in Lloyds from the government and paid 75p a share.

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Ed Bowsher

Ed has been a private investor since the mid-90s and has worked as a financial journalist since 2000. He's been employed by several investment websites including Citywire, breakingviews and The Motley Fool, where he was UK editor.

 

Ed mainly invests in technology shares, pharmaceuticals and smaller companies. He's also a big fan of investment trusts.

 

Away from work, Ed is a keen theatre goer and loves all things Canadian.

 

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