Santander leads race to buy RBS branches: Report

The Spanish financial powerhouse Santander has emerged as the front-runner to acquire Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) Williams & Glyn branches in Britain for about 4 billion pounds,says a media report.

The Spanish financial powerhouse Santander has emerged as the front-runner to acquire Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) Williams & Glyn branches in Britain for about 4 billion pounds,says a media report.

“Santander has moved into pole position to take over the 320 branches in England being sold by RBS,” The Times reported.

The business is being sold under the orders of the European Commission as a consequence of billions of dollars it received from the government.

The sale memorandum went out last week,but it emerged over the weekend that any buyer would have to find an additional 3 billion pounds as well as the base price of 1 billion pounds. According to the report,a buyer would also have to invest 2 billion pounds into the 24 billion pounds loan book that would be a part of the deal.

Apart from Santander,Virgin Money and National Australia Bank are the other possible bidders,the daily said.

Meanwhile,Virgin has made it clear that it is still in race to acquire the RBS assets.

Williams & Glyn’s disappeared as a brand more than 20 years ago but it has been maintained as a legal entity that files accounts at the Companies House.