RBS ponders selling Bank of China shares

by Richard Kilner

Story link: RBS ponders selling Bank of China shares

The Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) new chief executive, Stephen Hester, is thought to be considering selling the bank’s £2bn stake in Bank of China.

The shares were bought in 2005 and were locked for a three year period which has now expired, permitting Hester to sell the stake, originally bought for £900m.

Hester has been in the Chinese capital to discuss the proposed sale with the Bank of China.

The move would not upset the Chinese bank, according to Xinhua, the Chinese news agency.

RBS is not the only Western bank to sell or consider selling its stake in Chinese financial institutions, with both Bank of China and China Construction Bank seeing overseas investors selling stakes recently.

However, the Scotsman reports that the news is not going down so well in the City, with Keith Bowman (an analyst with Hargreaves Lansdown) stating that RBS, which had worked hard to earn a Chinese foothold, would be abandoning a stake in a longterm growth market.