Royal Bank of Scotland in talks with Chinese trust: report
BEIJING (AFP) — British banking giant Royal Bank of Scotland is in talks to buy 19.9 percent of Suzhou Trust in China, its latest attempt to ramp up its position in the Chinese market, state media said Wednesday.
"The two parties have got initial results in negotiations over key issues such as the selling price and the size of the stake," the 21st Century Business Herald cited an unnamed source close to the deal as saying.
The value of the deal was not disclosed, the newspaper said.
The potential deal would be the Royal Bank of Scotland's second purchase of Chinese financial assets. It currently holds 8.25 percent of Bank of China, one of the nation's big four state-owned lenders.
Foreign banks are keen to take stakes in Chinese lenders in hopes of capturing a greater slice of China's fast expanding banking market and tapping the nation's more than five trillion dollars in total banking deposits.
But current regulations restrict foreign institutions from buying more than 20 percent of a domestic financial group.
US investment bank Morgan Stanley has also expressed an interest in buying a stake in Suzhou Trust, based in eastern Jiangsu province. By the end of last year Suzhou Trust had assets of 6.7 billion yuan (900 million dollars).
