UK govt in talks to sell RBS stake to Abu Dhabi

The UK government is in advanced talks to sell a significant stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to Abu Dhabi.

According to the BBC, the government, which controls 82% of RBS, has been negotiating with Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds for months. It could sell up to a third of its stake to Abu Dhabi, one of the seven states of the United Arab Emirates. Any sale will likely be loss-making given the significant fall in the share price of RBS since the government acquired its stake. The government was forced to inject £45.5bn of taxpayers' cash into the troubled bank between 2008-09 to prevent its collapse following the group's takeover of ABN Amro at what turned out to be the top of the marke...