ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND GROUP PLC is within a rising trend. Continued positive development within the trend channel is indicated. The stock has broken up through the resistance at pence 50.00. A further rise to 100p (1) is predicted in the medium term. The stock is assessed as technically positive for the medium long term.

Good luck -

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has sold some of its holding in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), the bank which it rescued in the 2008 financial crisis, but has taken a loss of more than 2 billion pounds on the deal.
UK Government Investments sold a 7.7 percent stake in a placement overnight to institutional investors at 271 pence a share, almost half of what the government paid during its initial and largest capital injection into RBS, which it bailed out for a total of 45.5 billion pounds.

“This sale represents a significant step in returning RBS to full private ownership and putting the financial crisis behind us,” Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said.

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc "RBS" - Goldman Sachs European Financials Conference

Ross McEwan, RBS CEO, will participate in a fireside chat at the Goldman Sachs European Financials Conference in Frankfurt on Thursday 7th June 2018 at 16:30 (BST). A live audio webcast will be available on our website www.rbs.com/ir.

“This sale represents a significant step in returning RBS to full private ownership and putting the financial crisis behind us,” Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said.

Got hand it to him. Dressing up a colossal loss as a positive.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) will pay its first dividend since it nearly collapsed and took a state bailout in 2008, paving the way for the government to further reduce its stake in the lender.

Taxpayer-owned RBS said it would pay an interim dividend of 2 pence per share, subject to the finalization of a $4.9 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over the bank’s sale of mortgage-backed securities in the run up to the financial crisis.

The dividend marks a milestone in RBS’s rocky road to rehabilitation over the last decade. Together with hefty cuts made to its investment bank and international business, it could shift its profile with investors from a risky bet into a safe, predictable value stock.

“We’re pleased but not totally surprised about the dividend news, it just show they have really cleaned the bank up and it’s one of the best capitalized banks in Europe now,” said Alasdair McKinnon, manager at The Scottish Investment Trust which owns RBS shares.

Until its agreement in May, the looming settlement had blocked RBS’s restoration of dividends, excluding a whole class of income-focused investors from buying its stock.

Shore Capital Hold 258.95 290.00 285.00 Retains

A nice little kick-through as the dividend stream has started and the income funds can now buy.

I assume the weakness in LLOY today is funds switching out of LLOY into RBS. I could be wrong

UBS today upgrades its investment rating on Royal Bank of Scotland Group (The) PLC (LON:RBS) to buy (from neutral) and raised its price target to 300p (from 285p)

Interim Management Statement

RBS reported an operating profit before tax of £961 million for Q3 2018, compared with £871 million in Q3 2017, and £2,787 million for the year to date.

● Q3 2018 attributable profit of £448 million and £1,336 million for the year to date.

Income stable in a competitive market:

● Income increased by £268 million, or 2.7%, for the year to date compared with 2017. Excluding NatWest Markets and Central items and notable items in UK PBB and Commercial Banking, income was broadly stable.

● Q3 2018 income increased by £485 million, or 15.4%, compared with Q3 2017 principally reflecting indemnity insurance recoveries of £272 million and lower disposal losses.

● Q3 2018 net interest margin of 1.93% decreased by 8 basis points compared with Q2 2018. Excluding one-off items, net interest margin was down 5 basis points, of which 3 basis points related to competitive pressure and 2 basis points due to higher average liquidity balances.

Lower costs through continued transformation and increased digitisation:

● Compared with 2017, other expenses for the year to date decreased by £183 million, or 3.3%, excluding VAT releases in 2017, and FTEs reduced by 6.8%.

● We continue to transition from physical to digital services. 6.2 million customers now regularly use our mobile app, 14% higher than Q4 2017. In UK PBB, total digital sales increased by 22% for the year to date, representing 43% of all sales.

Strong capital position:

● CET1 ratio of 16.7% increased by 60 basis points in the quarter reflecting further RWA reductions and the attributable profit for Q3 2018.

● RWAs decreased by £4.3 billion in the quarter primarily reflecting reductions in NatWest Markets and the impact of capital initiatives in Commercial Banking.

● We have taken an additional £100 million impairment charge reflecting the more uncertain economic outlook and a further net £60 million impairment charge in our Irish business in relation to ongoing sales from our loan book to further reduce the level of non performing loans. Underlying credit conditions remained benign during the quarter.

● Following final settlement with the US Department of Justice, RBS declared a 2p interim dividend on 14 August 2018.

Outlook and recent developments (1)

We retain the outlook guidance we provided in the 2017 Annual Results document.

Further to previously announced plans to be operationally ready to serve our European Economic Area (EEA) customers when the UK leaves the European Union on 29 March 2019, we have received approval from the Dutch regulator (DNB) for the repurposing of the existing NatWest Markets N.V. (formerly RBS N.V.) banking licence.

Note:

(1)

The targets, expectations and trends (including but not limited to impairment provisions) in this document represent management's current expectations and are subject to change, including as a result of the "Risk Factors" on pages 372 to 402 of the 2017 Annual Report and Accounts and the Summary Risk Factors on pages 48 and 49 of the 2018 Interim Results. These statements constitute forward-looking statements; refer to Forward-looking statements in this document.

Shore Capital Buy 224.10 Reiterates

RBS = Plonkers https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46274644

Royal Bank of Scotland is preparing to move £13 billion worth of business out of the UK in the event of a no deal Brexit, it has emerged.

The state-controlled bank, which has its head office in Edinburgh, said it would shift such assets to the Netherlands.

The government had "day-to-day" involvement and "strategic" control over the treatment of companies in the hands of Royal Bank of Scotland's scandal-hit restructuring division, according to allegations in a legal claim against the bank. Court papers reveal that Oliver Morley, a wealthy property developer who is suing RBS, is also considering taking legal action against the Treasury over its alleged role in influencing the aggressive tactics employed against businesses by the bank's Global Restructuring Group (GRG).

Royal Bank of Scotland doubled profits last year and celebrated by declaring a special payout on top of an ordinary dividend. RBS reported an operating profit before tax of £3.4bn and an attributable profit of £1.62bn for 2018, more than double the £752m from the year before and higher than £1.58bn that analysts expected.

SP hardly moved, news must have been expected.

If the special is repeated or converted to permanent we are now on a yield of 5.5% which compares with LLOY on 5.3%.

Getting there... Some way to go to get back to 500p

UBS Buy 244.45 290.00 Reiterates

Shore Capital Buy 244.45 300.00 Reiterates

I've opened a S/B here this morning.