LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline (L:GSK), Britain's biggest drugs company, is close to appointing Philip Hampton as its next chairman, in a move that will coincide with his departure from Royal Bank of Scotland (L:RBS), Sky News said on Thursday.
Sky said GSK could announce Hampton's appointment next month. It said he is likely to join GSK as a non-executive director or deputy chairman and move into the chairman's seat in 2015.
He would replace Christopher Gent, who has been at GSK for almost a decade and said earlier this year he planned to announce a successor this year with a view to standing down in 2015.
Hampton has been RBS's chairman since February 2009 when he was parachuted in to help rescue the bank.
GSK and RBS declined to comment.
(Reporting by Steve Slater and Paul Sandle; Editing by Greg Mahlich)