RBS CEO Hopes UK Govt Starts Stake Sale In 2011 -Report

5th Jul 2010 09:16

FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)--Stephan Hester, the chief executive of U.K.'s Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) wants the British government to start sellingdown its stake in RBS as early as next year, Germany's Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag reports quoting the CEO. "It is my goal that the sale of government stakes starts in the coming year," he is quoted as saying. "That won't certainly happen in one go. But I would be disappointed if there's no first privatisation step in the coming year," he told the newspaper. "RBS is perhaps the biggest restructuring case in the world, and in the first year we were of course very occupied with ourselves. But now there's ... free space again," he is quoted as saying. The U.K. government acquired a 83% stake in RBS in the course of a larger bank rescue plan. Newspaper website: www.welt.de -Frankfurt Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; 49-69-29725-500. (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 05, 2010 04:16 ET (08:16 GMT)