17th Sep 2013 10:35
LONDON (Alliance News) - Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC has rejected the offer for hundreds of its branches made by W&G Investments, the vehicle formed to bid for the branches by former Tesco PLC finance director Andrew Higginson, the BBC's business editor Robert Peston reported Tuesday.
RBS concluded that the two other offers for the 315 branches, from private equity consortia led by Corsair and and Blackstone, offer better value, Peston said, without saying where he got the information.
W&G was the only bid to offer a full separation of the branches and a plan to float the whole new company on the London Stock Exchange. However, Peston said RBS saw more value in the other bids because they involve RBS keeping a stake in the separated small-business bank for a while, which should allow it to share in any future increase in the value of the bank.
RBS is close to announcing which of the two remaining bids will buy the branches, Peston added.
RBS and W&G weren't immediately available to comment.
W&G Investments has already listed on AIM, but its shares are suspended pending the outcome of the bid for the RBS branches. If it is unsuccessful it will cancel the listing.
In its AIM admission document, W&G said it had proposed to make a payment of GBP1.1 billion in cash up-front to be held on secure deposit by RBS, and that the deal could eventually total GBP1.5 billion.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24124793
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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