UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that the government will fully exit its NatWest stake by 2025-26 and will not pursue a cut-price sale to the public. AJ Bell's Danni Hewson said the move could have served as a teaching moment to bring in first-time investors.
NatWest (LSE:NWG)shares won’t go on sale to the British public at a cut-price, that’s according to the latest announcement from the UK’s new Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves.
In a speech today Reeves cited the high cost such a scheme would cause the national purse.
The British government still intends to fully exit its shareholding in NatWest by 2025-26.
It comes after a review of the prior government’s plan to sell discounted shares, in a scheme that could potentially have introduced investing to a larger public audience.
“Whilst protecting the taxpayer is understandable and even laudable, the share sale could have been used as a valuable catalyst to get first time investors on board,” AJ Bell’s head of financial analysis Danni Hewson said in a note.
“Creating a teaching moment that could have changed the investing landscape for the better would have been exciting, although there are still other ways the government could boost the number of UK retail investors.”
