By Steve Slater and Matt Scuffham
LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland (L:RBS) is likely to write down the value of its U.S. bank Citizens by about 4 billion pounds ($6.2 billion) next week, industry sources said, potentially wiping out much of the state-backed bank's annual profit.
The write-down of goodwill would be because the U.S. bank is not worth as much as RBS paid for it, and serves as another reminder of the hefty price paid for past acquisitions by former chief executive Fred Goodwin.
RBS, which is 80 percent owned by the UK government after being rescued in 2008, sold 29 percent of Citizens Financial Group (N:CFG) in September and is expected to reduce its stake to about one-third this year, which would see Citizens deconsolidated from RBS Group.
The goodwill writedown is an accounting issue and will not impact RBS's capital position. Indeed, the deconsolidation would boost RBS's capital strength when it takes place.