RBS may lose premium in Santander deal

22nd Jun 2012 10:41

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) may receive 300m pounds less than expected from the sale of 318 branches to Santander UK. That after business at the branch network did not reach the targets set out in the deal terms, according to sources cited by Financial Times.The agreed £1.65bn price tag included a £350m premium that was tied to the branch network's performance; but the downturn in the economy since the deal was struck has hurt the business's bottom line, so that the premium may be revised lower, the newspaper reports.Further weighing on RBS´s share price today is the fact that it has been downgraded by Moody's from an A3 rating to Baa1 after the rating agency carried out a comprehensive review of the 15 largest global banks. The move followed on similar rating cuts carried out on Italian, Spanish, German, and Austrian banks over the last month.By 11:10AM, Santander was up 1.67% to €5.047 and RBS was down 0.78% to 241.40 pence.MD