The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) reported that it had withdrawn from the Soteria consortium that was considered to be a favorite bidder for the £6 billion contract to privatise the service of Britain's search and rescue helicopter service.

It has been revealed that the idea of privatisation has further gone in to uncertainty with this decision of the RBS with the consortium’s bidding for the contract for accusations of misconduct.

Although the British military police are still investigating allegations of improper conduct during bidding for the contract, Soteria spokesman confirmed that the Royal Bank Project Investments Ltd had opted out as a shareholder of the consortium even before Christmas season and that the procuring authority was apprized right away.

Soteria partners including French defense group Thales, Sikorsky (part of United Technologies Corp) and Canadian helicopter services firm CHC, said that the consortium is now aware of the possible trouble with its bid after the RBS quit and as a result negotiations on the contract came to a halt late last year.

Terming the whole reason as commercially sensitive a British MoD spokeswoman told that it would not be apposite to comment on it specifically, at this point, in advance of a further announcement. Both the UK aerospace industry functionaries and government officials are upset about the bid proposals and have agreed to stall the plan.