Royal Bank of Scotland announced today that 95.11 percent of the shares offered in its £12bn rights issue had been taken up by investors. Nearly 300m shares left with the underwriters – Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and UBS – was to be placed during the day.

This was the largest rights issue seen in European markets. Its success followed an upturn in the bank’s share price last week, which at the start of the week had fallen to 220p, dangerously close to the 200p price for the shares offered to investors on an 11 for 18 basis. The shares had recovered to 259p on Thursday, ahead of the rights deadline on Friday. The shares fell by 5 percent to 245½p on Friday.

The relatively high level of acceptances could help sentiment towards HBOS’s £4bn rights issue. It s offering shares at 275p and on Friday its shares closed at 330¾p, barely above its 12 month low.

RBS who, jointly with Santadar of Spain and Fortis of Belgium, succeeded in winning a €71bn battle to buy Dutch lender ABN Amro last year, is due to announce a trading update on Wednesday ahead of the end of the first half of its financial year.

However, last week when Bradford & Bingley issued its profit warning and restructured its rights issue, RBS announced that the trading guidance it had given at the time of the rights issue in late April was still appropriate for the group and its divisions.

Investors are presently awaiting news on RBS’s plans to make disposals, notably of its insurance business. RBS recently agreed to sell its 50 percent stake in Tesco Personal Finance to the supermarket group for £1bn.

Investors are also heaping pressure on Sir Tom McKillop, chairman, after unhappiness with the group’s performance. They regard the banks determination, despite market conditions, to win ABN Amro as having necessitated the rights issue, which was accompanied by heavy write-downs on the value of complex debt securities.