RBS Shedding Colombia Unit

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is in advanced talks to sell its Colombia unit and an announcement should be made soon, says a spokesman. RBS’s presence in Colombia is not significant, as figures from the local financial regulator show that it has less than a 0.25% market share by assets. RBS Colombia’s assets were around $247.80m at the end of 2009. A Bogota-based equities analyst who covers the local banking industry thinks that a deal could be worth $50m-$75m and says that most likely buyers are international banks with local exposure, such as Citi, HSBC, Santander and BBVA. The RBS spokesman says that there are other LatAm operations that the bank has identified as being “non-core” and could possibly be divested too. The bank has assets in Argentina, Chile and Venezuela. RBS is divesting non-core assets globally. For instance, RBS Sempra Commodities says it has agreed to sell its metals, oil and European energy business lines to JPMorgan for $1.7bn.