RBS to sell 318 branches to Spain’s Santander for £1.65 billion
04 Aug 2010
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) today agreed to sell 318 branches to Spain's Grupo Santander for £1.65 billion, based on the value of the net assets plus a £350 million premium.
RBS said that was selling the 318 branches and associated assets and liabilities to Santander UK plc for a premium of £350 million to net assets at closing.
The transaction will be paid in cash and is expected to be completed by December 2011.
The sale comprises of 318 branches, of which 311 are RBS branded branches in England & Wales and 7 NatWest branded branches in Scotland, the retail and SME customer accounts attached to these branches serving 1.8 million retail customers and 244,000 SME customers and 1,200 mid-corporate customers.
The sale also includes 40 SME centres, four corporate centres and three private banking centres which predominantly serve RBS customers.
The business had total assets of £21.5 billion, customer deposits of £22.4 billion and risk-weighted assets of £15.2 billion as at 31 December 2009. It generated an operating loss of £55 million for 2009.
Santander, Spain's largest bank is paying £350 million more than the £1.3 billion value of the RBS assets as at 31 December 2009.
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