The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced a joint venture in which the private equity firm Blackstone will manage and, eventually, dispose of the bank's $2.26 billion portfolio of British commercial real estate (CRE) loans.
BBC News reports that RBS' CRE portfolio is viewed as non-core and its disposal will help in the bank's recovery. ‘This [joint venture] is an innovative agreement that allows RBS to tap into the liquidity in the market, to reduce our risk over time and to benefit from the possibility of upside in the portfolio,’ says Bruce Van Saun, chief financial officer for RBS.
The portfolio represented 21% of RBS' assets at the time of its 2008 near-collapse, which resulted in a bailout that left the British government with an 83% stake in the bank.
