RBS sells non-core asset to GE
THE Royal Bank of Scotland yesterday sold its German invoice financing business to GE Capital, as it continues to offload non-core businesses.
It said it would sell RBS Factoring GmbH, which provides loans secured against company invoices, to the American conglomerate but did not disclose the price or terms of the deal.
Analysts said the price-tag was in the region of €40 to €55m (£36m) – based on around 25 to 30 per cent of the firm’s €169m-worth of assets.
RBS purchased the Frankfurt-based business, which provides loans of up to 90 per cent of the value of a firm’s unpaid invoices, when it bought out its parent company in 2001.
“The acquisition of RBS’s German factoring business perfectly fits our strategic focus on small and medium-sized enterprises,” said Rich Laxer, President and chief executive of GE Capital in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Meanwhile, RBS said it had received several bids for its European private equity business. It is understood to have received around 10 bids for the asset, ahead of this week’s deadline for buyers to express interest.