RBS team confirms ABN success
A Royal Bank of Scotland-led team today sealed victory in the battle for Dutch bank ABN Amro.
The consortium, which includes Spain’s Santander and Belgo-Dutch bank Fortis, declared its offer unconditional after winning the backing of 86% of ABN’s shareholders for its €71bn bid.
The trio, which beat off a rival €62bn offer from Barclays, made the declaration following the conclusion of Fortis’s €13bn rights issue and encouraged all remaining ABN shareholders to accept their offer as soon as possible.
Barclays withdrew from the bidding last week after failing to win the 80% backing needed for its mainly share-based offer, which fell in value during the recent summer turmoil across global stock markets.
The winning consortium now faces the task of breaking up the bank, a process which is likely to shed up to 19,000 jobs. The break-up will involve some 4,500 branches across 53 countries.
Some City commentators have raised concerns over the price the RBS-led team has paid and potential problems with the handling of the carve-up with the Dutch bank in the midst of unstable financial markets.
Others have questioned why RBS has continued with its bid after ABN sold its LaSalle US banking operation to Bank of America. LaSalle was seen as a jewel in the crown for RBS when the bid battle began six months ago.
Despite missing out on LaSalle, Royal Bank of Scotland will get the rest of ABN’s North American business, the lion’s share of its European business, the bank’s Asian operations and its wholesale business, excluding Brazil.
Fortis meanwhile is set to grab the Netherlands operations, the global private clients business, and the global asset management business.
That leaves Santander with the majority of the Latin America divisions, Italian bank Antonveneta, and Dutch credit firms Interbank and DMC Consumer Finance.
