Flooding the market with the bank's shares would drive the stock price into the ground, as doing so would insinuate that the government was desperate to get rid of a low-value asset. Instead, it's going to be a "drip-feed" situation, as with the other U.K. bailout case, Lloyds Banking Group. This was a far smaller rescue, and the company is in much better shape now. Even so, the state isn't letting RBS go quickly -- at the end of last year, it held nearly 25% of the bank; these days, that number is down, but not by too much, to just under 16%. Fire sale Since the bailout occurred almost seven years ago, the U.K. government is probably sick to death of holding Royal Bank of Scotland in its portfolio for so long. Another impetus for selling the stake now is the state of the company. While by no means in excellent shape, the bank has been sporadically profitable since being rescued. And yet its share price has languished -- in my opinion chiefly because of the heavy government ownership.