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(Alliance News) - NatWest Group PLC is set to offload private bank Adam & Co, Sky News reported Wednesday.
According to Sky, NatWest is working with investment bank Evercore to help divest the bulk of Adam & Co's operations.
Adam & Co's lending book would be folded into Coutts, NatWest's main wealth management business.
Sky said the FTSE 100-listed lender could have a few suitors for Adam & Co, meaning the sale price could hit GBP50 million.
NatWest salvaged Adam & Co's future in 1993, a year after it made a disastrous multimillion pound foreign exchange trading loss. The private bank - named after the renowned Scottish economist Adam Smith - was established in Edinburgh in 1984 by a group of prominent Scottish business figures.
https://news.sky.com/story/state-backed-natwest-in-talks-to-sell-private-bank-adam-co-12220834
Shares in NatWest were 2.2% lower in London on Wednesday afternoon at 177.30 pence each.
NatWest will release its annual results on Friday, where it is expected to record an operating loss of GBP418 million - according to company-compiled consensus - compared to a profit of GBP4.23 billion in 2019. The lender is forecast to make an attributable loss of GBP730 million versus the attributable profit of GBP3.13 billion the year before.
Market consensus is guiding for NatWest to record net interest income of GBP7.68 billion, down from GBP8.05 billion in 2019, while total income is forecast at GBP10.82 billion, down from 2019's GBP14.25 billion.
By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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