Two tipped for RBS branches

Virgin Money and JC Flowers are tipped to battle it out for 316 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) branches.  RBS is expected to shortly ask an investment bank, thought most likely to be UBS, to reignite the disposal process following Santander’s pullout. RBS is said to be confident it will be able to extend Brussels’ state-aid deadline to sell the branches by the end of 2013. One report says Virgin is emerging as the front-runner but RBS  could still hold on to the branches. Sir Philip Hampton, chairman, said the climate in the European Commission was “more flexible now”. One option could be to spin off the units through an initial public offering.  15/10/12 Financial Times 1, 21Times 33, 37Daily Telegraph B3Independent 47Guardian 20