Lloyds Banking Group said Tuesday it would aim to float about 25 percent of its TSB retail business next month.

Industry experts said they expected TSB to be priced at less than its book value of 1.5 billion pounds ($2.53 billion, 1.85 billion euros), to leave Lloyds with a loss on the sale of the 200-year-old brand.

The expected unfavorable price reflects a cooling of investor interest in Britain after a series of company flotations earlier in the year.

The price for using rescue funds

The UK bank is required to sell more than 600 branches that make up TSB because of a European Union stipulation obligating the bank to create more competition in the domestic market after receiving massive state aid during the global financial crisis.

"TSB has a strong balance sheet and significant economic protection against legacy issues," Lloyds' chief executive officer, Antonio Horta-Osorio, said in a statement.

TSB now has 4.5 million customers, making it the UK's seventh-largest retail banking group.

Lloyds claims the group has the strongest capital adequacy ratio of all high-street UK banks.

hg/cjc (Reuters, dpa)