Troubled lender Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which has been bailed out by the UK government, is considering sale of its about 2-billion pound stake in the Bank of China (BoC), a media report says.
The Financial Times today said that the recently appointed RBS chief executive Stephen Hester had met Bank of China executives and regulators for a possible divestment of its 4.3 per cent stake in BoC.
FT quoted a person familiar with the development as saying that "no final decision has been made about whether the BoC stake will be sold".
In December 2005, RBS acquired the stake for 800 million pound as the lead partner of a consortium that included Merrill Lynch and Temasek. The three-year lock-in period on the investment expired last week.
The FT report further stated that several other foreign financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Dresdner Bank, have invested in China's leading banks and analysts believe that they too could be tempted to raise cash by selling stakes, once lock-ins expire in the coming weeks.
The report added that Hester's Asia trip this week had formed part of his strategic review and selling the BoC stake could help repair the bank's balance sheet and repay the UK taxpayers.