RBS plans to sell $3.3B of shares in Citizens unit

ROYAL BANK of Scotland Group Plc plans to raise as much as $3.3 billion selling shares in its U.S. unit Citizens Financial Group Inc. to investors. / BLOOMBERG FILE PHOTO/MATTHEW LLOYD
ROYAL BANK of Scotland Group Plc plans to raise as much as $3.3 billion selling shares in its U.S. unit Citizens Financial Group Inc. to investors. / BLOOMBERG FILE PHOTO/MATTHEW LLOYD

LONDON – Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc plans to raise as much as $3.3 billion selling shares in its U.S. unit Citizens Financial Group Inc. to investors.

The bank, which owns 70.3 percent of Citizens, will offer as many as 132.3 million shares to institutional investors for about $24.88 apiece, according to an amended S-1 registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The sale would reduce RBS’s ownership to 46.1 percent.

CEO Ross McEwan, 57, is taking an ax to the Edinburgh-based lender’s global operations as he seeks to reverse seven straight annual losses. As many as 14,000 jobs could go at the Edinburgh-based bank’s securities unit as he cuts the number of countries RBS operates in to focus on its domestic market, a person with knowledge of the matter has said.

The lender raised $3.46 billion in Citizens’ September initial public offering, one of the largest in the U.S. last year. Cutting its holding further would enable the lender to boost capital as the U.K. government seeks to return RBS to full private ownership.

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Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are coordinating the sale, while RBS, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, UBS Group AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo Securities are joint bookrunners, according to the filing. Barclays Plc, RBC Capital Markets, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Oppenheimer & Co. and Sandler O’Neill & Partners are co-managers.

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