Marks & Spencer, the UK retailer, has excluded Royal Bank of Scotland, one of its relationship banks, from talks over a new loan of up to £700m (€1bn) because of the bank's financial backing for a potential £9.1bn takeover bid by retail entrepreneur Philip Green.

M&S, led by new chief executive Stuart Rose, went into talks with its lending banks on Tuesday with a view to arranging a loan of between £500m and £700m to help pay for a planned return of £2.3bn of cash to shareholders.