Independent report

Government shares: future primary sales

Recommendations to improve the way future first sales of government shares are carried out.

• From: Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
• Published: 18 December 2014

Documents

An Independent Review for the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills: IPOs and bookbuilding in future HM government primary share disposals

Ref: BIS/14/1300

PDF, 834 KB, 94 pages

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Details

Lord Myners was asked by the Secretary of State for Business to lead a panel of experts in an independent review of the way government owned shares are sold through Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). This is the process by which shares in a company are first made available to the market. He was asked to look at ‘bookbuilding’. This is a means by which advisers receive orders for shares from potential investors to determine price. The review has considered whether there are alternatives or enhancements to bookbuilding that may be considered appropriate for future sales of government primary shares.

The review was a result of one of the recommendations made by the National Audit Office in its report into the government’s sale of Royal Mail shares to help inform decision making in future share sales by government.

Published 18 December 2014