RBS consortium trumps Barclays'' bid for ABN Amro with $98 billion offer

16 July 2007

Mumbai: A consortium of three banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland has offered to acquire Dutch bank ABN AMRO for 71.1 billion euros ($98 billion), revising their earlier offer with more cash, in an attempt to beat rival suitor Barclays.

The consortium, which includes Spain ''s Santander and Belgian-Dutch group Fortis, kept its offer for ABN at 38.4 euros per share, 10 per cent above Barclays'' all-share offer of about 35 euros per share, worth about 64 billion euros ($88 billion).

The trio raised the cash component of the bid to 93 per cent from 79 per cent earlier.

The RBS-led consortium raised its offer on the condition that the LaSalle unit, which ABN agreed to sell to Bank of America for $21 billion, remained part of the bank.

RBS wanted LaSalle to bolster its US operations. The group had even planned to withhold 1 euro per share to cover costs for litigation over ABN''s LaSalle bank unit.

The legal battle, however, ended after the Dutch Supreme Court said ABN could sell Chicago-based LaSalle. RBS would now receive its share of the cash from the sale of the business instead.