RBS rejects private equity bid for branches

The Telegraph reports JC Flowers and Apollo Management had been bidding for the 'Project Rainbow' unit of RBS, but we told last week the offer had been rejected. A source close to the talks told the Telegraph RBS had recently changed the terms of the deal so that any buyer would only take an initial 50% stake in the unit, with the option to but the remained if it is floated on the stock market. The report said the failure of the US bid raised the chance RBS would just opt to float the business itself. Santander had been in line to buy the branches for about £1.6bn until it bowed ...