MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

RBS shareholders vote on £ 20 billion bail out plan

Shareholders in Royal Bank of Scotland are to vote on a £20 billion bail-out plan which could put nearly 60% of the company in public hands. RBS, one of the worst hit by the banking turmoil, has called a general meeting in Edinburgh to approve the rescue.

The bank is bolstering its finances by offering £15 billion in new ordinary shares, with the Government promising to buy up any remaining. But because RBS shares are trading well below the 65.5p offer price, investors are likely to snub them. This leaves the taxpayer - currently sitting on a paper loss of around £5 billion on the new shares - with a potential 58% stake. On top of the £15 billion share issue, RBS shareholders will vote to approve issuing £5 billion in preference shares to the Government, which the bank will buy back over time. RBS cannot pay any dividends to shareholders on its ordinary shares while any of the preference shares are outstanding. The drastic fundraising moves come on top of a £12 billion rights issue by RBS earlier this year before the financial crisis worsened. Last year's acquisition of Dutch bank ABN Amro at the top of the market had already stretched RBS, and the subsequent turmoil and bail-out cost chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin his job. The NatWest parent wrote off £5.9 billion in credit crunch losses in the first half of this year and is likely to make a full-year loss for the first time in its history as a public company during 2008. More than 50% of RBS investors have to approve the fundraising exercise for it to go ahead. RBS move follows this week's earlier vote by Lloyds TSB shareholders in favour of taking over HBOS as well as taking government bail-out money. Lloyds TSB shareholders voted 95.98% in favour of the takeover. They also approved plans to raise £5.5bn by issuing new shares and special preference shares. "This is an overwhelming endorsement for the logic of this transaction," said Lloyds TSB chairman Sir Victor Blank. The government has allowed the takeover of HBOS by Lloyds TSB to bypass normal competition rules. When the deal was originally announced in September, the government backed the deal using a special national interest clause on the grounds that a collapse of HBOS would have had a disastrous impact on the UK. HBOS chairman Dennis Stevenson warned last week that the bank may have to be nationalised if the takeover falls through.