The British government has had to take a 60 per cent stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland, after investors turned their backs on a share offer to raise capital for the stricken lender. Existing shareholders took up just 0.24 per cent of the offer, amounting to 56-million shares, leaving the remaining 22.8-billion shares to the Treasury, which had underwritten the venture. RBS was once the second biggest bank in the UK, but has since become the biggest recipient of public bailout funds.

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