The UK government is in talks to sell a significant stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to Abu Dhabi, the BBC has learned.
The government, which controls 82% of RBS, has for months been negotiating with Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds.
It could sell up to a third of its stake to Abu Dhabi, one of the seven states of the United Arab Emirates.
This is likely to to be a loss-making sale, as RBS shares trade at much less than the UK government paid in 2008.
Abu Dhabi has the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. According to an estimate by the Economist it is worth about £550bn ($875bn).
Between its various investment funds, Abu Dhabi has bought stakes in a number of companies including Daimler, Virgin Galactic and the Mercedes F1 team. Sheikh Mansour, a member of the ruling royal family in the UAE, owns the football club Manchester City.
In late 2008, Abu Dhabi invested £1.2bn in Barclays when the British bank, like so many others, was on the verge of collapse. It doubled its investment as Barclays recovered and has since sold most of its stake at a profit.
More recently the investment company Aarbar, controlled by the Abu Dhabi government, took a notable stake in the struggling Italian bank Unicredit at the start of the year, which has jumped by a third since then.
Abu Dhabi has a good reputation for corporate governance in those businesses in which it has invested, is not known for meddling in the day-to-day running of those companies and has yet to have a high-profile clash with managements or boards.
