"Royal Bank of Scotland" Plc (RBS) is close to announcing the sale of its European private equity fund to Dutch pension fund "Alpinvest", in a deal estimated at EUR 400 million, Financial Times says.
The deal, to be announced in a few weeks, comes as RBS is also negotiating the sale of its American private equity for EUR 200 million.
RBS, in which the British government now holds 70%, is trying to sell its non-core assets to consolidate its capital reserves. The British bank is in talks with Spanish banks "Santander" and BBVA, and with "National Australia Bank" for the sale of 318 of its branches.
In 2008, RBS posted the greatest losses in the history of British companies: 24.1 billion pounds, and thousands of its employees lost their jobs. The bank was saved by the intervention of the British government.