More than 10 bids for RBS’s Dublin aircraft-leasing business

ROYAL Bank of Scotland, Britain’s biggest government-owned bank, has received bids for its Dublin-based aircraft-leasing operation from commercial lender CIT and Jackson Square Aviation, according to sources.

RBS received more than 10 bids for the unit, which it is seeking to sell for about $6 billion (€4.4bn) to $8bn, said a source. RBS will reject some of the bidders by September 23, after which the remainder will be given additional details on the unit’s finances, the person said.

RBS has reduced non-core assets by more than half to £113bn (€129.6bn) since 2009. Assets already sold include bank branches and its credit-card payment processing unit. If RBS succeeds in selling the unit for $8bn, it would mark the bank’s biggest single sale since the 2008 financial crisis.