(Bloomberg) -- The UK has opened talks with brokers including Hargreaves Lansdown Plc and AJ Bell Plc about helping to sell the state’s shares in NatWest Group Plc to retail investors.

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The government has asked firms to sign non-disclosure agreements and the talks are in their early stages, according to people familiar with the matter, who are not authorized to speak publicly. The retail sale, which Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt announced last year, is expected to be confirmed in the Budget on March 6.

NatWest’s biggest shareholder since the 2008 financial crisis, the government has been gradually reducing its stake for years but wants to offer at least some of its remaining 33% holding to the general public. At Tuesday’s market price of about 234 pence, its stake was worth about £6.7 billion ($8.5 billion).

Representatives for Hargreaves Lansdown, which has 1.8 million customers, and AJ Bell declined to comment on their involvement in the talks. The Treasury and UK Government Investments, which oversees the taxpayer’s interest in the bank, also declined to comment.

Hargreaves Lansdown already allows consumers to sign up for updates on the government’s efforts with the retail share sale, according to a notice from the broker. The company has done the same for other impending offerings, like Reddit’s planned listing in the US and the potential float of beer brand BrewDog.

“NatWest has generated strong interest from clients and we’d expect this to grow rapidly over the next couple of months,” said Tim Jacobs, head of primary markets at Hargreaves Lansdown. “Given that people can already buy NatWest in the secondary market, the discount offered in the share sale is going to be a major factor in how well the offer gets away.”



While some potential clients may be targeted by brokers in the hope of generating future business, others may be able to buy shares directly from a government website.

The last major privatization in the UK was the Royal Mail in 2013, which ultimately raised £3.3 billion for the government. Investors could apply online to buy as much as £10,000-worth of stock, while employees were handed a 10% stake for free, the government said at the time.

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