RBS sells Asia, Mid East assets for $200 million

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) sold its retail business in Kazakhstan yesterday to HSBC Holdings for $52 million in cash, making it the fourth asset to be sold in just two days to raise a total of $200 million.

RBS, which is 83-per cent owned by the government of the UK (See: British government becomes majority shareholder in RBS as investors reject stock offering) is hard pressed to sell assets in order to repay the government and has sold or exited 20 assets in the past 14 months raking in over $2.5 billion with more larger sales expected soon. <http://www.domain-b.com/finance/banks/20081128_british_government.html>

The Edinburgh-based bank said that the sale of its retail business in Kazakhstan represents further progress of its five-year strategic plan, but it will continue to have a significant presence in Kazakhstan, focused on the corporate and investment banking franchise.

On Tuesday, RBS sold its retail banking business in the UAE to Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank for a sum equal to the net asset value of the business at completion, around £37 million at the end of 2009, plus a premium of about £31million and also sold its 99.37 stake in RBS Pakistan to Faysal Bank Limited for £34 million.

On Monday, RBS agreed to sell its Argentinean branch to Banco Comafi and Spain's Santander bank has come across as the only bidder for the 318 UK branches that RBS has put up for sale as of yesterday.

Stephen Hester, chief executive of RBS, had said in February that he will cut costs and risk and made a five-year strategic plan that included selling non-core assets worth about £250 billion in order to reduce risk and pay off government aid and return the bank to shareholder control.