Former WorldPay boss keen to buy RBS WorldPay

By Steve Slater And Paritosh Bansal
06 November 2009 @ 12:04 pm EDT

A founder of part of payments processing business RBS WorldPay is interested in buying all of the business back from Royal Bank of Scotland after the UK bank was told to sell it by European competition authorities.

A man passes a Royal Bank of Scotland branch in the city of London in this October 13, 2008 file photo. Part-nationalised British lender Royal Bank of Scotland said on February 8, 2009 it has not yet decided on the size of its 2008 staff bonuses amid press reports the group had proposed bonuses totalling 1 billion pounds ($1.47 billion). "No decision has been made by the board, and a decision would only be taken with the support of its major inve...

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RBS WorldPay is one of the leading payment processing businesses globally and could have a price tag of about 1.5 billion pounds ($2.5 billion).

Nick Ogden, chairman and chief executive officer of Voice Commerce Group, said he has backing from up to three private equity firms to finance a deal.

"Yesterday we formally approached RBS to buy the business back from them," Ogden told Reuters. The interest had been passed on to UBS, who are handling the sale, he said.

Separately, the founder of part of RBS WorldPay's U.S. business also wanted to buy back the U.S. business, he told Reuters on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Kate Holton in London; Editing by David Holmes)

($1=.6025 Pound)