Lloyds boss picks up £36,000 in shares days after bank is returned to private sector

Lloyds Banking Group chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio has bought £36,000 worth of shares just a day after the government confirmed that it had sold its final stake in the bank which received a £20 billion taxpayer bailout in the financial crash.

The Portugese banker drafted into the lender in March 2011 to drive through its recovery after its disastrous acquisition of HBOS in the crisis picked up 50,000 shares in Lloyds, which owns Bank of Scotland, at 72.31p each, according to a stock market filing issued yesterday.

Mr Horta-Osorio has been linked with a possible move to major rival HSBC, which has a much bigger international business than Lloyds, and where chief executive Stuart Gulliver is due to step down in 2018.

But while Lloyds and the Treasury has been in triumphant mood this week, a group of former shareholders suing the bank over its takeover of HBOS prior to its near collapse in 2008 accused the two of gloating while they are still heavily out of pocket.

The Lloyds Shareholder Action Group, which represents 6,000 investors, are suing the bank for £450m over claims Lloyds mislead them on the £12bn HBOS deal.

“It is disgraceful that the government is gloating about making a profit from selling its stake in Lloyds,” the group said.

HBOS and Lloyds had both already been bailed out by the government in 2008 but the government had to inject a further £5.7bn in taxpayer funding in 2009 as HBOS’s finances turned out to be worse than previously thought, causing investors to suffer huge losses.

Lloyds is also wrestling with a fraud case at its HBOS Reading branch. The bank has set aside a £100mln provision to reimburse victims of fraud at HBOS’s Reading branch, in which struggling businesses suffered big losses before Lloyds bought the lender. Six people were jailed, including two former HBOS employees, earlier this year for the fraud.

Lloyds has also racked up a £17.4bn bill to cover claims for mis-sold payment protection insurance and faces another £82mln hit in compensation for investors who were mis-sold investment products.

In a statement seeming to play down reports that he is now seeking a new challenge, Mr , Horta-Osorio said: “Six years ago we inherited a business that was in a very fragile financial condition. Thanks to the hard work of everyone at Lloyds, we’ve turned the group around.

“But the job is not done. We’re going to continue to use our strong position to help Britain prosper.”