RBS to sell 20-billion-pound Luxembourg fund management business

LONDON (Reuters) - State-backed British bank Royal Bank of Scotland Plc said it intends to sell its Luxembourg-based fund management business as part of its plan to shrink and focus on its core UK retail and commercial banking.

The bank said it had appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers to advise on the sale of its Luxembourg-based fund management business, which had 28.5 billion euros (20.5 billion pounds) in assets under administration at the end of last year.

"In line with our strategy to make RBS a smaller, more focused bank, we have taken the decision to sell RBS (Luxembourg) S.A.," the bank said in a statement. It said the first phase of the process was "well under way" and it was working with PwC "to select a limited number of potential buyers" to continue discussions with.

(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Nishant Kumar)