'Three £4bn offers' for RBS's joint-venture trading arm

Published on Thursday 7 January 2010 20:44

ROYAL Bank of Scotland and US group Sempra Energy are understood to have received three competing bids, all of about $4 billion (£2.5bn), for their joint-venture commodities business.

Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Australia's Macquarie Bank are the remaining suitors, and they submitted their offers on Wednesday, sources said yesterday.

The sale of RBS's 51 per cent share of RBS Sempra, which trades commodities from oil and natural gas to metals and agricultural products, was ordered by the European Commission's competition authorities in return for the state aid the Edinburgh-based bank had received.

A deal is possible within a fortnight, sources said. However, one cautioned that a sale was not a foregone conclusion.

"It's one thing to say an offer has been made," the source said, "but then the haggling starts about any conditionality. A suitor might want X, Y or Z in return."

RBS has moved quickly on the sale of its stake in RBS Sempra, as the EC made its divestment order only two months ago.

Analysts say the acquisition of RBS Sempra, meanwhile, would offer entry into a lucrative market with a diverse global trading book and excellent business connections.

RBS, Deutsche Bank and Macquarie all declined to comment.

Meanwhile, RBS is said to be close to selling its asset management arm for about 100 million. The operation was deemed non-core by chief executive Stephen Hester about a year ago.

Aberdeen Asset Management is believed to be a front-runner for the RBS business, which manages 28bn of funds, with other interested parties said to include BlackRock, Schroders, Henderson and Neuberger Berman.