Reports of UK Conservatives to sell Lloyds shares

London - British finance minister George Osborne plans to sell government shares in Lloyds Banking Group to small investors at a discount of at least 5% if his Conservative Party wins the May 7 election, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

The Telegraph quoted Osborne as saying that a sale of Lloyds shares to small investors would give more people "a stake in our economy".

So far the government has sold Lloyds shares only to institutional investors. But The Sunday Telegraph said the government now wanted to raise £2 to £3bn by selling Lloyds shares to at least 200 000 individual investors.

Osborne said before that he aimed to raise at least £9bn by selling more Lloyds shares before April 2016, on top of around £9bn worth already sold.