According to Lloyds Banking (LLOY) taxpayers are booking a £900m return, once dividends are factored in, on their bailout of the group in October 2008.
The Government pumped in £20.3bn at the height of the financial crisis, taking a 43% stake in Lloyds, but the bank is now fully back in private ownership.
BIG RELIEF
Naturally it is a substantial relief that no money has been lost, particularly as the shares briefly traded below 25p in 2011, but a total return of less than 4.5% seems little reward for such a big investment (even if this was not the purpose of the exercise).
We thought it would be fun to go back and see which FTSE 100 stock would have made the best investment for taxpayers over the near nine-year period.
THE WINNERS
And the winner is?
Equipment rental group Ashtead (AHT). In the unlikely event a bailout of this sector had been required to preserve economic stability, the Government and taxpayers would have achieved a total return of 2,500%.
The top ten performers over the time frame are in the table below.
| Company | Total return since Oct ’08 (%) |
| Ashtead (AHT) | 2,500 |
| Smurfitt Kappa (SKG) | 1,000 |
| Barratt Developments (BDEV) | 1,000 |
| Micro Focus (MCRO) | 930 |
| Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) | 870 |
| Mondi (MNDI) | 840 |
| Taylor Wimpey (TW.) | 770 |
| Hargreaves Landsdown (HL) | 750 |
| Fresnillo (FRES) | 650 |
| Croda (CRDA) | 630 |
Source: SharePad
