British taxpayers' stake in Lloyds falls below 22 percent

By Anjuli Davies LONDON (Reuters) - British taxpayers have recovered 9 billion pounds from their bailout of Lloyds Banking Group , following a 500 million pound share sale that has reduced public ownership of the bank to just under 22 percent. British taxpayers held a 40 percent stake in Lloyds following its rescue in 2009 and that has fallen to 21.99 percent, UK Financial Investments, the government agency in charge of managing the stake, said on Thursday. "We have raised a further 500 million pounds through Lloyds share sales," British finance minister George Osborne said on Twitter. "Nine billion pounds now recovered and being used to pay down our national debt." The government has said it aims to raise at least 9 billion pounds selling shares in the bank in the coming year as it looks to recover 66 billion pounds of taxpayers' money spent bailing out banks in the financial crisis. "Today’s announcement shows the further progress made in returning Lloyds Banking Group to full private ownership and enabling the taxpayer to get their money back," a spokesman for Lloyds said in an emailed statement. Shares in Lloyds closed on Wednesday at 80.5 pence, comfortably above the government's 73.6 pence buy-in price. On March 9, HM Treasury sold 500 million pounds worth of shares in Lloyds bank, which left it with a 22.98 percent stake. (Reporting by Anjuli Davies; editing by Carolyn Cohn and Jason Neely)