RBS plans to take first steps towards privatisation in 2011
ROYAL Bank of Scotland aims to put the conditions in place for the government to start selling its 83 per cent stake in the bank next year, chief executive Stephen Hester revealed at the weekend.
Hester told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that the sale “will not be conducted in one go”. But he added: “I would be disappointed if there would not be the first steps towards privatisation next year.”
RBS is still nursing its wounds after it was caught in the maelstrom of the financial crisis, but it beat expectations with a return to profit in the first three months of the year.
It is reversing a decade-long international expansion drive and has raised over £1.6bn from exiting or selling over 20 businesses in the last 14 months. The bank will leave all sectors, such as global retail banking, in which it cannot establish itself among the market leaders.
It is also selling some of the parts of Dutch bank ABN Amro it bought in 2007, as the takeover was “clearly a big mistake,” Hester said.
Hester added that introducing stricter rules for loans as a consequence of the financial crisis is the right thing to do despite the fact that fewer firms get loans and that prices for borrowers are rising. “That’s the price for a stable economy,” he said.