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LONDON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Britain has hired Barclays Plc to manage a planned sale of shares in Lloyds BankingGroup to the general public, two sources with directknowledge of the matter said on Friday.
Britain, which rescued Lloyds during the 2007-09 financialcrisis with a 20.5 billion pound ($29.7 billion) bailout, hasbeen trimming its 43 percent stake in Britain's biggest mortgagelender for more than two years.
Finance minister George Osborne said last week the sale ofat least 2 billion pounds of shares in Lloyds to retailinvestors would be postponed due to turmoil in global financialmarkets. It had originally been timed for spring.
The government, which now owns less than 10 percent ofLloyds, has recovered some 16 billion pounds of taxpayer fundsto date from share sales.
UK Financial Instruments is the agency in charge of managingBritain's stakes in state-supported lenders Lloyds and RoyalBank of Scotland. Barclays and UKFI declined to comment.
In December 2014, UKFI appointed Morgan Stanley to run a"dribble-out" trading plan to gradually sell down the Lloydsstake to pension funds and other institutional investors.
News of Barclays appointment was first reported byBloomberg.
($1 = 0.6914 pounds) (Reporting by Richa Naidu; editing by David Clarke)
