A formal date can concentrate minds, yet the priority must be the achievement of value for the public purse
It was almost exactly a year ago that the Treasury trumpeted what it called a “landmark” moment: for the first time since the financial crisis in 2008, NatWest, the formerly shredded Royal Bank of Scotland, was no longer majority-owned by the state. A £1.2bn sale of shares had cut the Treasury’s holding to 48.1%.
A path to a full disposal by 2025-26 – a target the government set itself in 2021 – seemed assured, especially as UK Government Investments (UKGI), which manages the holding, cracked on with the selling and got the stake down to 41.5% in short order. Pandemic fears over losses had passed. It was possible to believe in a happy tale of more shares being sold at gradually higher prices against a backdrop of robust market demand.
