On the day it posted higher quarterly results, RBS said
it would sell an 80 percent stake in its Global Merchant Services business,
which runs the WorldPay payment processing company, to Advent International and
Bain Capital for an enterprise value of up to 2.03 billion pounds ($3.23
billion).
Advent and Bain have been in exclusive talks to buy
WorldPay since late July, and analysts had given a price tag of between 2-2.5
billion pounds for WorldPay.
The private equity companies said they planned to grow
the WorldPay business and could make further acquisitions.
RBS Chief Executive Stephen Hester has embarked on a
wide-ranging asset sale program after the bank, 83 percent state-owned, was
ordered last year by European regulators to sell a string of assets as a price
for its state bailout.
Earlier this week, it sealed the sale of over 300 UK
branches to Spanish rival Santander for 1.65 billion pounds.
RBS will keep a stake of some 20 percent in WorldPay. The
sale will result in a gain of around 850 million pounds and boost its core Tier
1 capital ratio by around 30 basis points.
RBS will get an initial cash payment of 1.7 billion
pounds once the transaction is finalized and could get a further 200 million
pounds depending on WorldPay's performance.
RBS shares closed down 1.7 percent at 51.10 pence, giving
the bank a market capitalization of around 29 billion pounds.
The stock has risen around 75 percent since the start of
2010, outperforming a 45 percent gain in rival part-nationalized UK bank Lloyds.
RBS had to be rescued by the British government in
October 2008 after its finances were stretched by its shared acquisition of
Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007.
The bank was propped up with 20 billion pounds of
taxpayers' money, causing the eventual resignation of then chief executive Sir
Fred Goodwin, who had presided over an aggressive acquisition policy which
included the takeover of NatWest.