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Oz bank pulls out of RBS’s Amro sell-off
Evening Standard 13 Aug 2008
Royal Bank of Scotland has lost another potential buyer for its £630 million-worth of ABN Amro assets in Australia, with the Commonwealth Bank pulling out of talks.
Previous talks with the country's biggest lender, National Australia Bank, foundered last month when the Aussie lender unveiled a bigger-than-expected hit from the subprime crisis.
The current investment climate has also scared away the Commonwealth. The bank said its board has assessed “the uncertainty in world financial markets and the risks involved in integrating these complex businesses at this time.
“The bank believes that given these factors it would not be in the best interests of shareholders to proceed with the acquisition in this environment.”
RBS picked up ABN's Australian and New Zealand assets in last year's ¤14.3 billion (£11.38 billion) deal to buy the Dutch group.
