Investing
Troubled RBS branch sale could ‘drag on until 2016’
Taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland could miss its end-2013 deadline to sell 316 branches, a potential bidder has said.
One of the bidders has warned that the sale, known as Project Rainbow, could drag on until 2016.
W&G Investments, made up of 25 leading UK investors including fund managers Schroders and Threadneedle, is proposing to buy the branches for around £1bn, according to reports.
But as the consortium prepares to list in London and raise an initial £15m for its bid, it said: “It is possible that separation will not be achieved within the two-year period currently contemplated.”
W&G also said that it was setting a four-year deadline – after which RBS would have to repay any money W&G had already put down.
Reports suggest three parties have submitted bids to take on the branches, with a preferred bidder likely to be announced in September.
The European Commission made it a condition of the UK government’s bailout of the group that it sell the branches by December of this year. RBS is set to ask for an extension.
