RBC's US retail bank may fetch $3.7 bn

Royal Bank of Canada, Canada’s largest lender, may get as much as $3.7 billion in the sale of its US consumer bank, a fraction of what it invested in the money-losing business, analysts said. Royal Bank may sell its RBC Bank unit for about $2 billion to $2.5 billion, said Mario Mendonca, a bank analyst at Canaccord Genuity. Peter Routledge, an analyst at National Bank Financial, said the bank may raise between $2.8 billion and $3.7 billion, based on recent asset sales.

Royal Bank is getting advice from JPMorgan Chase & Co on a possible sale of the consumer bank, which contributed to 10 straight quarterly losses at the lender’s international unit, said three people familiar with the talks. “I don’t think a buyer would look at it and say this is a great asset,” Mendonca said in an interview yesterday.