RBS chief reveals approaches from potential buyers

Published on Tuesday 3 November 2009 20:00

STEPHEN Hester, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, said there had already been interest from potential buyers in the assets the company had to sell.

In an interview with The Scotsman, he also forecast that the smaller businesses could be sold within 18 months.

"There have been informal approaches," he said, adding that this interest included some of the names already been mentioned as likely acquirers.

RBS is selling 318 branches of the former Williams & Glyn's outlets in England and Wales, and its NatWest branches in Scotland. This will reduce its retail banking market share by 2 per cent. Its share of the small business banking market will fall by 5 per cent.

Hester said that he had not wanted to sell the insurance business and that it could take up to the full four years to be sold.

"Yes, I regret the sale of the insurance business," he said.

In a conference call to explain the bank's response to the government-agreed deal, he said: "We are completely accepting of this settlement and we will make the best of it."

But he warned that the final carve-up of the group would make it harder for the bank to make a profit and to restore value for shareholders.

Hester told The Scotsman that he was comfortable with the sale of the England and Wales branches to improve competitiveness, though he questioned the practicalities of it. Customers may want to stay with RBS, but the bank will have to sign up to a pledge that will ensure the banks taking over the sold branches are not stripped of customers, he said.

Even his own 13-year-old son, who has just opened an account with RBS in London, will have to choose whether to go with the new bank or move back to RBS.

Elaborating on an earlier statement that it was "bizarre to instruct customers not to deal with RBS", he said: "Customers are the innocent pawns in a bigger game. They opened an account with RBS because they wanted to be with us."

He said a flotation on the stock market for some of the assets was a "very realistic" idea.

"Direct Line and Churchill (the insurance businesses] are very powerful," he said.

He said the fall in the group's share price should be a concern to taxpayers as it would determine the returns expected.

He said he had no quarrel with the EU officials who were "doing their job", but he said: "Their priorities are not the same as mine."

On the issue of lending, he had earlier said that the bank was "open for business, eager for business and doing business".

The 3,700 branch job losses announced this week were necessary to make the bank efficient, he said. It had "too many people making too many mistakes".