Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has sold its entire stake in Bank of China for £1.6 billion ($2.34bn).
RBS sold its 4.3 per cent stake, of about 10.8 billion shares, at a price of 1.71 Hong Kong dollars per share. The bank had been looking recently to sell-off some of its operations to boost its balance sheet.
The British government has a 57 per cent stake in the lender and RBS said the disposal reflected its “new strategic priorities”.
RBS is one of several major investors to sell stakes in Chinese banks in recent months, including Bank of America and Swiss giant UBS.
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The Edinburgh-based bank acquired the stake for £900 million in August 2005.