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Standard Chartered's talks to take over a large part of Royal Bank of Scotland's operations in India, Malaysia and China have collapsed.
That will be a major blow to RBS, which is under pressure to sell off non-core businesses to repair its balance sheet after the Government's £20 bailout and reporting the biggest loss in UK corporate history. RBS is 70% owned by the taxpayer.
The two have been talking for several months over a string of branches and loan books in the three countries. Standard Chartered reportedly offered up to $250 million (£157 million) for the businesses but RBS said this was not enough.
“At the end of the day we simply could not agree a price,” said one official close to the negotiations.
In August Australia and New Zealand Bank agreed to acquire another chunk of RBS's Asian assets, including wealth management and commercial banking in Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong, for $550 million.
In the same month RBS's Pakistan assets were sold to MCB Bank in a £54.3 million deal.
Many of the assets sold or up for sale came to RBS as part of its ill-fated consortium takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro.
Chief executive Stephen Hester is keen to sell what he sees as non-core businesses quickly. A spokesman for RBS said discussions over the sale of Asian assets “continue with a number of parties”.
