18th Jan 2016 08:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC remains hopeful of paying a dividend in 2017 at the earliest, according to Chairman Howard Davies, who was speaking to Bloomberg Television on Friday.
"We?ve got some wood to chop before we can be firm," Davies said, according to a Bloomberg News report, discussing the bank's intentions on returning capital either through paying dividends or buying back stock on the market. "We've said that this would be a 2017 event at the earliest. We?re still hopeful of that," Davies said.
However, an average of six analysts polled by Bloomberg are expecting RBS to show a net loss of GBP840.0 million for 2015 when it reports earnings on February 26.
Also casting a shadow over the bank is the need to come to a settlement with US authorities for alleged past misconduct over mortgage-backed securities, as well as a hefty restructuring effort that involves shrinking the group's investment bank.
In order to resume dividends, RBS first must pay GBP1.2 billion to the UK government, which owns about 73% of the lender following its GBP45.5 billion bailout in the financial crisis of 2008-09, to retire the so-called dividend access share. The instrument was issued to the government in 2009 as part of the bank's rescue, and RBS has already paid GBP320 million towards its removal.
Shares in RBS were up 0.3% at 265.40 pence on Monday morning.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-18/rbs-seen-facing-more-losses-in-2016-casting-dividend-in-doubt
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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