RBS In Advanced Talks To Sell Asian Assets To ANZ

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) is in an advanced talks to sell its retail and commercial banking operations in five Asian markets to Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ.AU), people familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday.

The units being eyed by ANZ are in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam, one person said. This means that RBS is keen to sell its Asian assets on a piecemeal basis instead of selling them all in one go.

In May, Melbourne-based ANZ raised A$2.5 billion by selling new shares to help fund its bid to buy some of RBS's Asian banking assets, though ANZ didn't specify which assets it planned to buy.

RBS has said previously that it is also selling retail operations in India, Pakistan, China and Malaysia.

The U.K. bank, now 70%-owned by the U.K. government, is disposing of assets as part of a massive restructuring plan after posting a GBP24 billion net loss in 2008, the largest loss in U.K. corporate history.

HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) and Standard Chartered PLC (STAN.LN), both U.K. banks with extensive operations in Asia, were previously reported to also be interested in RBS's Asian assets. But another person told Dow Jones previously that HSBC didn't submit a bid for the assets.

Company Web sites: www.rbs.co.uk, www.anz.com.au

-By Vladimir Guevarra, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0) 2078429486, vladimir.guevarra@dowjones.com

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