Lloyds Banking Group, the partly UK state owned group, has sold its remaining 21 per cent stake in wealth management firm St James's Place for £680 million($1.17 billion).

Lloyds Banking Group, the partly UK state owned group, has sold its remaining 21 per cent stake in wealth management firm St James's Place for £680 million($1.17 billion).

The UK-listed bank said in a statement that it was selling 109 million shares at 630 pence per share as part of its strategy to focus on its retail and commercial businesses.

Settlement of the placing will take place on 13 December 2013. Following completion of the placing, Lloyds will no longer hold any shares in St James’s Place.

Lloyds said that as a result of the placing, it expects the group will realise a gain on sale of approximately £105 million and that the tier 1 capital ratio would increase by about £685 million, equivalent to 24 basis points under Basel III rules.

Lloyds has been partly owned by the UK taxpayer since it was bailed out after the 2008 financial crisis by the British government for £20.5 billion to save it from collapse.

As part of the UK government's plan to return Lloyds to full private ownership, the bank has sold a number of its non-core assets to strengthen its balance sheet.

In March, Lloyds sold a 20 per cent stake in St James's Place and a further 15 per cent in May. Last month, the bank sold its Scottish Widows Investment Partnership business to UK-listed Aberdeen Asset Management.

"The group launched its strategy in 2011 to reshape the business to concentrate on its core UK retail and commercial banking customers. As part of that approach, the group has been reducing non-core businesses and addressing historic issues, while focusing on increasing net lending to its core segments. The sale of the remaining stake in SJP releases further resources and represents another step towards refocusing this business on its core customers," said chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio.