NAB favours solo bid on RBS

National Australia Bank is likely to bid on its own for select branch banking assets of Royal Bank of Scotland in Britain, the Financial Review reported.

The newspaper discounted recent reports, in the Financial Times, Guardian and Herald Sun, that NAB may bid with a private equity firm. Blackstone, Resolution and JC Flowers have all been linked to a NAB bid for the RBS assets.

RBS is selling the branch network, customer lists, and staff and supporting infrastructure covering RBS branch-based business in England and Wales, the NatWest branches in Scotland and also the "direct" small business customer base. The European Union is forcing the sale in the wake of the bail out of RBS by the government of Britain.

Bidders for the RBS assets expect to receive the information memorandum on the sale by late this month, the AFR reported.

Banco Santander and Virgin Money are among other likely bidders for the RBS branch assets.