<p>The retail offer was approximately seven times oversubscribed with demand for shares worth approximately £3.9 billion:</p><p>Approximately 65% of that demand came through the intermediaries offer, i.e. these funds were not held by Government but by the intermediaries participating in the offer.</p><p>Application funds received from applicants in the direct retail offer were held on Government's behalf in a low interest bank account. As a number of applicants applied by cheque not all cheques had cleared and funds received by the time the offer closed.</p>