Private equity set to take controlling stake.
Private equity house CVC Capital is in talks to take a 51% stake in RBS’s insurance arm, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The recently nationalised bank is understood to have opened up the sale to private equity bidders following its failure to find a trade buyer. American insurer Allstate is understood to have been the only one to table a bid, which RBS believed was too low.
The insurance arm, which includes household names such as Direct Line and Churchill, originally had a price tag of £7bn. The bank is now expected to accept less.
