RBS offloads Pakistan business

12th Aug 2009 07:33

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has agreed to sell its Pakistan unit to MCB Bank for $87m (£53m).The UK lender, 70%-owned by the British government, said it has reached agreement in principle for the sale of its 99.37% to Pakistan's largest bank.The deal is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of this year.Earlier this month, RBS confirmed the sale of its banking operations in six Asian countries to Australia's ANZ Group for $418m. That deal involved retail and commercial banking operations in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia and its onshore global banking and markets and global transaction services operations in the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan. RBS announced in February that it was to sell its retail and commercial businesses across Asia and exit its wholesale banking businesses in Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Pakistan following a strategic review. Chief executive Stephen Hester's policy of selling off 'non-core' assets goes some way to reversing the aggressive expansion of the bank overseen by controversial ex-boss Sir Fred Goodwin.