Turbulent market pushes government to extend timeline for selling NatWest stake

The UK has extending its trading timeline for when it will finally sell its taxpayer stake in NatWest by another year, as economic conditions worsen.

In a statement this morning, the government said it will only dispose of its remaining 48.5 per cent share in NatWest “when it represents value for money to do so and market conditions allow.”

The government’s shares in the lender date back to when the bank was rescued from collapse in a £45bn bailout in the 2007/8 financial crisis.

NatWest shares have fallen nearly two per cent in the year to date.

Some 703.5m out of the government’s five billion shares have been sold under the trading plan so far, raising around £1.6bn in total, it said in the statement.

While the government has widened the timeline in search of more fruitful market conditions, the aim remains to return NatWest to full private ownership by 2025-26.