RBS Investor To Withdraw £300m From ATM Group

One of the investors leading the purchase of a branch network from the state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to put Britain's biggest cash machine network up for sale for more than £300m.

Sky News understands that Notemachine, which owns and operates more than 8,000 ATMs in the UK and Germany, could be sold or floated on the stock market in the coming months after it shareholders hired investment bankers to consider their options.

Sources said on Wednesday that Corsair Capital, a private equity group specialising in financial services investments, was working with Jefferies to explore a potential sale of the company.

The sources said that no decisions had been taken and that an auction might not get underway for some time.

Corsair acquired its stake in Notemachine nearly three years ago in conjunction with Peter McNamara, the company's founder, and other members of its senior management team.

News of Corsair's decision to appoint bankers comes as the firm progresses with a deal to buy a stake in Williams & Glyn (W&G), which is being spun out of RBS to comply with European Union state aid requirements.

Corsair and other investors struck an agreement with RBS in 2013 to take control of more than 300 branches, with W&G due to be listed on the stock market by the end of next year.

However, George Osborne has asked competition regulators to examine whether W&G will be of sufficient scale to bolster competition in the banking sector, an assessment which was delayed last month because of the slow progress being made in separating the business.

Corsair and the other prospective buyers are earning significant sums from RBS in the meantime through payments made as part of the deal.

This week, Mr Osborne sanctioned the first sale of taxpayer-owned shares in RBS since its £45.5bn bailout in 2008, but sparked criticism for selling them at a price which led to a £1bn loss for the Government.

Insiders believe that Corsair will also make a handsome return from its investment in Notemachine, which could be worth in the region of £320m.

The company supplies more than £5bn of cash through its network annually and says that 20m people use one of its ATMs every month.

Mr McNamara is a former Lloyds executive, later moving to chair the listed company MoneyBox.

Notemachine also owns the UK-based independent foreign exchange provider, Eurochange, following a takeover last year.

Corsair, Jefferies and Notemachine were all unavailable for comment.