U.K. Government Cuts NatWest Stake to 17.97%

By Ian Walker

The U.K government has sold more shares in NatWest Group, reducing its shareholding to 17.97% of the company's voting rights, as it steps closer to returning the lender to private ownership.

In a regulatory disclosure Friday NatWest said that the Treasury has sold 85.4 million shares at an undisclosed price, and now has 5.97 billion voting rights. It previously had 18.99% of the bank's voting rights.

Each voting right equates to four shares and the stake is worth 5.12 billion pounds ($6.74 billion) based on NatWest's closing share price of 343.0 pence.

The government's stake in the bank resulted from its 2008 bailout of Royal Bank of Scotland, which bought NatWest in 2000 and rebranded the enlarged company as NatWest Group in 2020. The U.K. spent 45.5 billion pounds on the bailout and, at one point, owned 84% of the bank.

This latest reduction is part of the government's roadmap to exit its position and return the bank to private ownership by 2025-2026.

Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 30, 2024 09:25 ET (13:25 GMT)

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