| RBS sales deadline set |
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| Written by Will Peters | |
| Thursday, 04 March 2010 14:29 | |
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RBS continues to scale down in line with European Commission directive. RBS (LON:RBS) is falling in line with European Commission directives on asset disposals. Today it is reported that RBS has set an early April deadline for potential buyers of its payment processing arm and more than 300 bank branches, people familiar with the matter said. As part of the conditions of accepting Government aid the European Commission said RBS must cut back its expansive reach and focus on core banking services in order to not breach competition laws. Details on both the bank branches and Global Merchant Services were received by suitors early this week, the sources said, following "teaser" documents sent earlier in the year. Over 40 bidders have shown an interest in the payment processing unit, best known as WorldPay, and were considering offers, industry sources said. The release of the information memorandum provides the first detailed financial disclosure on the asset. According to a Reuters report on the issue the deadline for indicative offers had been set at April 7, sources said, just days after the long Easter weekend. That deal, estimated to be worth between 1.5 billion and 3 billion pounds ($2.2 billion-$4.5 billion), has seen private equity firms including BC Partners, Apax Partners and Advent International as potential suitors, according to industry sources. RBS last week said there was "quite a queue" of interested suitors looking at WorldPay, but "a queue not quite as long" for the bank branches -- the RBS-branded network in England and Wales and NatWest in Scotland. Two sources told Reuters the deadline for indicative bids for the branches -- a far more complex sale -- had been set for just before the Easter break in the first days of April. One of the sources said RBS would decide after that deadline, and based on indicative valuations, whether to proceed with the bank sale or "pause" it until the market and broader UK economy improves next year. The branches on the block are focused on business banking -- a fact regulators and the UK government have said should boost competition -- and RBS has said it expects them to return to profit after suffering disproportionately from rising bad debts. 
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