Telecom firm could answer call for Royal Bank Pakistan buyer

Published on Monday 1 June 2009 21:33

A FOURTH potential buyer for Royal Bank of Scotland's Pakistani business has thrown its hat into the ring, it was confirmed by the bank yesterday.

Orascom Telecom of Egypt and Rojhan Capital have expressed interest in taking over the bank's Pakistani business, acquired when a consortium including RBS bought Dutch banking giant ABN Amro in 2007.

The State Bank of Pakistan has granted permission for Orascom International Investment Holdings to conduct due diligence, RBS said in a letter to the Karachi Stock Exchange at the weekend.

Orascom Telecom owns Pakistan's biggest mobile company, Pakistan Mobile Communications Ltd (Mobilink).

The move follows the Pakistani central bank last month giving approval for three of the country's financial groups to do due diligence on the Scottish bank's assets in the country.

They are MCB, Pakistan's biggest bank by stock market value, Habib Bank, which has the most branches in the country, and Jahangir Siddiqui & Co.

Asked of the status of the other bidders' due diligence on the assets to be sold, an RBS spokesman said yesterday: "We are currently in active discussions with potential buyers and before any decisions are made, we will not be commenting further."

RBS is selling assets in Asia, including Pakistan, that have been deemed by chief executive Stephen Hester as "non-core".

RBS Pakistan has a stock market value of about $320 million (195m). It has about 2,000 staff in 80 retail branches across the country and a loan book of $840m.

&#149 Hester yesterday sold 254,280 RBS shares for a total of 102,000 to meet an income tax and national insurance liability related to the vesting of nearly 609,000 shares. Following the disposal, Hester retains 1.58 million shares in the bank.