Ashurst and Allen & Overy (A&O) have taken roles on Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) European disposal programme, as the bank sold its factoring businesses in both France and Germany.

In France, the issue share capital of RBS Factor has been sold to financial services company GE Capital, while a similar deal completed at the end of March saw the General Electric subsidiary buy out RBS' German business, RBS Factoring.

Although the value of the deals has not been disclosed, RBS said the French factoring business had assets worth around €600m (£524m) at the end of last year.

Ashurst advised RBS on both deals with a cross-border team headed up by London corporate partners Nick Cheshire and Stephen Lloyd and Paris corporate partner Frederic Pinet.

The rest of the team included tax partners Richard Palmer in London and Catherine Charpentier in Paris and partner Christophe Lemaire, who led on competition issues from the firm's French base.

The German sale saw Munich corporate partner Meiko Zeppenfeld take the lead role, alongside Cheshire and Lloyd. Also involved was Frankfurt tax partner Klaus Herkenroth, Brussels competition partner Ute Zinsmeister and Frankfurt partners Andreas Vogel in employment and Tobias Krug in international finance.

A&O's team was headed up by London corporate partner David Broadley, along with tax partner Christopher Harrison and corporate partner Nicolas Bichot and employment partner Sabine Smith-Vidal in Paris.

The German deal saw tax partners Asmus Mihm and Heike Weber advise in Frankfurt alongside corporate partners Hartmut Krause and Matthias Horn.