The taxpayer has sold another 1% of Lloyds Banking Group shares, bringing its remaining stake down below 16% and potentially teeing up the chance for Chancellor George Osborne to reveal details of a retail share offer in his Budget next week.
The Treasury told the stock market that it had sold another 690,000 shares into the market.
At an average price of around 87p a share that would have raised some £600 million.
Since broker Morgan Stanley began the gradual sell-off of the taxpayer stake at the start of the year it has come down from 24.9% to 15.9%.
That has raised almost £5 billion for the Treasury. It has made a further £7 billion from direct share sales to institutions.
In April, Osborne said that a retail offer would be part of his plan to raise a further £9 billion from Lloyds share sales.
The Chancellor revealed that private investors would be offered shares at a 5% discount to the market price and receive a 10% bonus — up to £200 — if they held onto them for a year.
The taxpayer spent £20 billion bailing out Lloyds in 2009 after its ill-fated takeover of HBOS.
