LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Britain has abandoned plans tosell shares in Lloyds Banking Group to private retailinvestors before the next election in 2015 because of a declinein the bank's share price, banking industry and politicalsources told Reuters.
Finance Minister George Osborne was keen to sell some of thegovernment's remaining 25 percent stake to shareholders havingalready raised 7.4 billion pounds ($12.4 billion) through twoseparate sales of shares to institutions such as pension fundsand insurers.
However, it has scrapped plans to offer the shares to retailinvestors because the shares have fallen below the levels atwhich the first two tranches of shares were sold.
($1 = 0.5990 British Pounds) (Reporting by Matt Scuffham)