Aberdeen to buy RBS money management units for $135M

U.K. goverment-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland on Friday said it will sell some of its asset management businesses to Aberdeen Asset Management PLC for 84.7 million pounds ($135 million). The sale is part of the bank's efforts to reorganize its business after reporting the biggest corporate loss in British history in 2008. The sale involves the Investment Strategies division of RBS Asset Management which was established in 1998. Assets under management totaled 13.5 billion pounds on Sept. 30. RBS and Aberdeen also concluded a distribution agreement for certain products, but the bank gave no details. The sale is to be concluded this year. "This transaction represents another step in our plan to restructure RBS around its core customer franchises," said Bruce Van Saun, RBS' group chief financial officer. RBS shares were up 1.3 percent at 36.33 pence on the London Stock Exchange. The bank, now 84 percent owned by the British government, posted a record loss of 24.1 billion pounds in 2008. RBS said in February that it aimed to wind down or dispose of 20 percent of its assets within five years. The bank had a setback in its disposal program this week, announcing on Monday that the $87 million sale of its Pakistani unit to Karachi-based MCB Bank had fallen through because it did not get regulatory approval. RBS says it will continue to seek a buyer for the Pakistani business. In August, RBS agreed to sell its retail and commercial banking operations in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Indonesia and certain other operations in the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan to ANZ Group Ltd. of Australia for $418 million. In April, RBS sold its 50 percent share in the insurance company Linea Directa Aseguradora to its joint venture partner, Bankinter SA of Spain, for euro426 million ($610 million).