Successful take-up eases credit crunch impact.
Royal Bank of Scotland’s record £12 billion rights issue has proved a success after more than 95% of shareholders took up the offer by Friday’s deadline.
There had been doubts over whether enough shareholders would take up the offer when RBS shares floundered at the start of its rights trading period. Worries were also triggered after buy-to-let mortgage specialist Bradford & Bingley revamped its planned rights issue two weeks ago and asked shareholders for less, causing speculation that take-up had been low.
But RBS will now receive a much-needed cash injection from issuing 11 new shares for every 18 existing shares at a price of 200p per share.
Underwriters have 299.4 million shares left to sell, worth £730m. It was reported that the shares will be placed today by UBS, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs.
The success of the rights issue could impact what RBS will now accept for its insurance business, which includes Direct Line and Churchill, for which it plans to raise at least £4bn.
