You won’t find a much more symbolic illustration of the current state of the deal markets than the apparent decision by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to leave private equity bidders out of the £7bn auction for its insurance business.
Creditable press reports say RBS has left several major private equity players out of the sale, which includes Direct Line and Churchill, leaving a straight run for eight trade bidders (RBS refused to comment and lead M&A counsel Linklaters gave a gnomic response suggesting that the full story had not been revealed but reactions from lawyers in the clubby private equity world is that buy-out bidders have indeed been left out of the process).
