RBS sells entire Bank of China stake: report

Royal Bank of Scotland has raised 2.37 billion US dollars by selling its entire stake in Bank of China, Dow Jones Newswires said Wednesday.

RBS, the leading foreign shareholder in Bank of China and one of three banks bailed out by the British government in October, sold its 4.3 percent stake in the Chinese lender, a source told the newswires.

The 10.8 billion shares were sold at 1.71 Hong Kong dollars each, representing a 7.6 percent discount to their 1.85 dollar closing price Tuesday.

The move, expected to bolster the balance sheet of RBS, was made after the bank's chief executive Stephen Hester visited Beijing last week to inform executives of the Chinese bank of his plan to sell the stake.

Hong Kong-listed Bank of China shares were up 1.6 percent at 1.88 dollars in early trade as analysts believed that the RBS sale had removed a big overhang over more selling down of the bank.

Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing sold part of his charitable foundation's stake in the Chinese lender last week, raising more than 500 million US dollars. The sale followed that by Swiss bank UBS, which earlier this month sold its 1.33 percent stake in the bank for 835 million dollars.