The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has entered into a sale agreement with Aberdeen Asset Management for the sale of certain fund management assets and contracts of RBS Asset Management Limited and RBS Asset Management Holdings and into a distribution agreement for certain products between Aberdeen and RBS Wealth Management.

Subject to regulatory approvals, the business will be sold for a total consideration of £84.7m the divestment, and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2010.

In February 2009 the Group announced a strategic plan, which concluded that the assets would be better placed with a new owner outside of RBS and as part of a business focused on fund management.

The sale encompasses the Investment Strategies (funds of funds) division of RBS Asset Management which was established in 1998. Assets under Management totalled £13.5bn as at 30 September 2009.

Bruce Van Saun, group chief financial officer at RBS, said: "This transaction represents another step in our plan to restructure RBS around its core customer franchises.

"Aberdeen is a well regarded and well established global asset manager and will be an excellent new owner for the business. We look forward to building an ongoing relationship with Aberdeen primarily focused around the provision of RBS Asset Management's funds of funds and multi-manager products."