Royal Bank of Scotland Group is now
considering selling the Williams & Glyn business it is being forced
to offload, a deal that would scupper a planned initial public offering.
RBS is being forced by the EU to sell branches and customer accounts before the end of 2017 as part of the condition of receiving a massive state bailout during the financial crisis. To do this, it had resurrected the Williams & Glyn name and will transfer the branches and 1.8 million customers to this new business.
The branches include current RBS branches in England and Wales and NatWest branches in Scotland.
It had been planning an IPO for Williams & Glyn, and says it is still working on the IPO plans as it looks to separate the businesses in the first quarter of 2017. However, it has also received “a number of informal approaches for the business”.
“Therefore whilst continuing preparations for an IPO, we are planning to launch a trade sale process in the first half of 2016, and targeting the signing of a binding agreement to sell the business by year end 2016, with full divestment by the end of 2017,” it says.
RBS says it submitted a banking license application for Williams & Glyn at the end of September, and is now working with the UK’s financial regulators on the separation.
At the end of the third quarter of this year, Williams & Glyn had £20 billion of loans and advances out to customers and customer deposits of £24 billion.
According to media reports earlier this week, a number of British and European banks could be interested in buying Williams & Glyn, which analysts say could be valued at up to £1.5 billion. Royal Bank of Scotland is unlikely to make any money from the sale as the complex separation is expected to cost about the same amount.
The Royal Bank of Scotland announcement means that the Williams & Glyn separation is following a similar track to Lloyds Banking Group’s sale of TSB. Lloyds too was forced by the EU to sell branches and accounts as a condition of its financial crisis bailout from the British government.
Lloyds did manage to list TSB back in June 2104, but TSB’s life as a listed company was short as Spanish bank Banco de Sabadell swept in and bought the bank earlier this year, including the 40% of the business still owned by Lloyds.
The British government wanted more competition in the UK banking sector in the wake of the financial crisis, and there are more so-called “challenger” banks now operating. But not all of them are British-owned.
The UK’s biggest retail banks are Barclays, RBS, Lloyds, HSBC and Santander. Nationwide Building Society is next biggest in terms of UK assets, followed by the challenger banks including Sabadell, Virgin Money, Metro Bank and Shawbrook Bank.
Earlier this week, Clydesdale Bank said it is planning to go ahead with a listing on the London Stock Exchange and the Australian Securities Exchange as part of its de-merger from National Australia Bank. That IPO is expected to take place in February.
Republished from news.markets: http://news.markets/shares/royal-bank-of-scotland-now-mulling-a-sale-of-williams-glyn-6895/
RBS is being forced by the EU to sell branches and customer accounts before the end of 2017 as part of the condition of receiving a massive state bailout during the financial crisis. To do this, it had resurrected the Williams & Glyn name and will transfer the branches and 1.8 million customers to this new business.
The branches include current RBS branches in England and Wales and NatWest branches in Scotland.
It had been planning an IPO for Williams & Glyn, and says it is still working on the IPO plans as it looks to separate the businesses in the first quarter of 2017. However, it has also received “a number of informal approaches for the business”.
“Therefore whilst continuing preparations for an IPO, we are planning to launch a trade sale process in the first half of 2016, and targeting the signing of a binding agreement to sell the business by year end 2016, with full divestment by the end of 2017,” it says.
RBS says it submitted a banking license application for Williams & Glyn at the end of September, and is now working with the UK’s financial regulators on the separation.
At the end of the third quarter of this year, Williams & Glyn had £20 billion of loans and advances out to customers and customer deposits of £24 billion.
According to media reports earlier this week, a number of British and European banks could be interested in buying Williams & Glyn, which analysts say could be valued at up to £1.5 billion. Royal Bank of Scotland is unlikely to make any money from the sale as the complex separation is expected to cost about the same amount.
The Royal Bank of Scotland announcement means that the Williams & Glyn separation is following a similar track to Lloyds Banking Group’s sale of TSB. Lloyds too was forced by the EU to sell branches and accounts as a condition of its financial crisis bailout from the British government.
Lloyds did manage to list TSB back in June 2104, but TSB’s life as a listed company was short as Spanish bank Banco de Sabadell swept in and bought the bank earlier this year, including the 40% of the business still owned by Lloyds.
The British government wanted more competition in the UK banking sector in the wake of the financial crisis, and there are more so-called “challenger” banks now operating. But not all of them are British-owned.
The UK’s biggest retail banks are Barclays, RBS, Lloyds, HSBC and Santander. Nationwide Building Society is next biggest in terms of UK assets, followed by the challenger banks including Sabadell, Virgin Money, Metro Bank and Shawbrook Bank.
Earlier this week, Clydesdale Bank said it is planning to go ahead with a listing on the London Stock Exchange and the Australian Securities Exchange as part of its de-merger from National Australia Bank. That IPO is expected to take place in February.
Republished from news.markets: http://news.markets/shares/royal-bank-of-scotland-now-mulling-a-sale-of-williams-glyn-6895/
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