Royal Bank of Scotland and Blackstone remain in talks over the sale of a portfolio of the bank's UK commercial real estate loans even as funding for the deal proves more difficult than anticipated, people familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires on Wednesday.
RBS agreed to sell a 25% equity stake in its £1.4bn UK commercial real estate loan portfolio to Blackstone three months ago. Blackstone is injecting between £100m and £150m for its stake and will also manage the portfolio, while RBS will retain a 75% stake in a new vehicle set up to house the portfolio.