UK's Reeves scraps plan for Natwest public share sale as too costly

By Kylie MacLellan

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's new finance minister Rachel Reeves said on Monday she had scrapped the previous government's plan to sell shares in Natwest Group to the general public as it would be too costly for the taxpayer.

Reeves said the government still intends to fully exit its shareholding by 2025-26, but that a retail share offer would mean having to offer the public discounts worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

"It would therefore not represent value for money, and it will not go ahead," Reeves said.

NatWest said this month that the government's stake in it fell below 20%, moving the bank closer to full private ownership after its state bailout in the 2008 financial crisis.

The previous Conservative government had mooted a share sale to the public as a means of expediting the process before it lost in the July general election to the left-leaning Labour party.

NatWest last week raised its performance targets for 2024 despite reporting a fall in first half profit, thanks to its upbeat assessment of the economy and customer activity.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; writing by Lawrence White, editing by William James and Tomasz Janowski)