British goverment buys 57.9 percent of RBS

The British government purchased 57.9 percent of the Royal Bank of Scotland Friday after a bank sale failed to raise enough capital to meet new requirements.

Investors purchased only 0.24 percent of the shares offered, forcing the government to step in, the International Herald Tribune reported.

The government also agreed to purchase a block of preferred stock that would push its investment in the bank to $31 billion, the newspaper said.

We are grateful to the government for its underwriting and broader financial support to liquidity and funding markets, RBS Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hester said in a statement.

We regret that existing shareholders did not take up their preemptive rights but understand that market sentiment toward the banking sector made this uneconomic in the short term, he said.