Santander has pulled out of talks with Royal Bank of Scotland to buy more than 300 Williams & Glyn branches, according to the Financial Times.
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After the first talks with Santander collapsed in 2012, RBS returned to the drawing board, and a year later received a £600m bond investment from a group led by Corsair Capital and the Church Commissioners created to help divest the business.
The network would have 1.7 million customers and 2 per cent of the current account market. There is small hope for RBS that Santander could come back with another offer. Six years ago, Santander planned to buy the business, before its rebranding as Williams & Glyn, but walked away in 2012, citing completion delays.
However, a person close to Santander suggested that there could be an opportunity for it to return to the table, saying that “at the right price, we’ll do the transaction”.
At one point, RBS had considered spinning off Williams & Glyn as a standalone unit, but the bank revealed it had scrapped the plan of a possible IPO for the challenger in its recent interim results.
CYBG Plc, the owner of the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank brands spun off by National Australia Bank Ltd. this year, may be interested in buying Williams & Glyn, said one of the people.
The news represents a significant setback for the United Kingdom government-owned bank.
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The Financial Times was first to report the collapse of the talks.
