RBS denies selling portfolio of residential properties

10th Oct 2013 07:38

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has dismissed claims it was planning to sell a portfolio of more than 1,300 UK residential properties.The Guardian newspaper had reported that RBS would sell the assets, owned by its property arm, and was considering floating them on the stock exchange. The report said the properties were worth about £200m and are owned by the bank's subsidiary West Register, which has about £3bn in assets."There are no plans to sell off a portfolio of properties or to float it on the stock exchange," a spokesman for state-backed RBS told Reuters.The Guardian added that the move was part of the government's efforts to hive off toxic assets into a mini "bad bank".The government is considering splitting the state-backed lender into a "good bank" and "bad bank", housing its problem loans in order to get more value out of a planned sell-off in its return to privatisation. RD