Royal Bank of Scotland is set to unveil its best quarterly figures since the financial crisis, in a move that will spark renewed debate about the bank returning to private ownership.
It will announce an £800m pre-tax profit when it reveals first-quarter results on Friday, City analysts forecast, according to the Daily Mail. The numbers are expected to be only the start of a profitable year for the bank that was taken largely into state ownership in 2008. An RBS surplus will nevertheless be a boost to Chancellor George Osborne and his hopes of selling off the banks that are in state hands. Shares in RBS ended last week at 295p and are up strongly since the start of April. But they will have to hit 500p for the government to break even on its £45bn bailout.
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