Royal Bank of Scotland said Friday that only 0.24% of its £15bn (€17.8bn) open offer was taken up by shareholders, effectively placing a majority of the group's stock into UK Government hands.

The open offer was priced at 65.5p a share, but as the share hasn't traded above that since November 7, the lacklustre investor participation came as no surprise. As underwriter, the UK Government will be left with 57.9% of the group's shares.