A group of more than 20 fund managers are in the process of bidding for 315 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) branches as suitor’s line up ahead of the week’s bid deadline.
The group is being led by Tesco’s former finance chief Andrew Higginson, and he is thought to be the front-runner to secure the RBS branches being put up for sale to appease European Commission rules on state aid.
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Higginson is said to have secured the backing of some of the UK’s biggest blue-chip institutions, including Schroders, Invesco Perpetual, Henderson and F&C.
On successful bidding, Higginson is expected to become chairman of the new bank, with plans to hold the branch network in a listed vehicle funded by the investors.
The other bidders for the RBS branches include Corsair Capital, which is working with US private equity firm Centrebridge Capital, and a rival private equity team comprising JC Flowers and Apollo.
Meanwhile, RBS, which must sell the branches following its £45.5bn ($68.7bn) bailout at the height of the financial crisis, has admitted that it was not confident a sale would be successful.
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By GlobalDataThe bank is also working on contingency plans for a flotation while considering selling a minority stake to private equity and institutional investors to kick-start the process.
