ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND SAYS INSURANCE SALE PLANS CONTINUE

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which has been trying to sell its insurance operations since the first half of last year, insisted last week that it was continuing with its plans to sell the insurance businesses. It made the statement in response to a Sunday Times report that RBS was looking increasingly unlikely to accept bids from either CVC Capital Partners — whose initial offer had already been rejected — or from BC Capital Partners, with which it had resumed talks. The report claimed that the private equity bids were unlikely to reach the level which RBS thinks its insurance operations, which include NIG, Direct Line and Churchill, are worth. RBS said last week that it was “continuing discussions with a number of interested parties. The bank has been looking to raise £7bn for its insurance operations but, after initially barring private equity from the bidding process, returned to that sector after no publicly listed operations were willing to pay a sum considered more suited to prosperous times than to the current credit-stretched climate.