RBS bid for bank piles pressure on Barclays
A Royal Bank of Scotland-led team today put further pressure on rival ABN Amro suitor Barclays, as the consortium tabled a formal £48.2 billion offer for the Dutch Bank.
The consortium was the first off the block to put forward a formal bid.
Barclays has until August 6 to make a formal offer, after it received an extension to the original July 23 deadline.
The RBS bidding team, which also includes Spain’s Santander and Belgian-Dutch group Fortis, said the initial offer period would run from July 23 until October 5.
The offer is equivalent to €38.40 per ABN share.
RBS’ initial bid was conditional on the inclusion of the business, but chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin said earlier this week that the group had not considered pulling out, following the court’s decision.
Under the proposed deal, the consortium will split ABN’s assets, with RBS taking the cash from the LaSalle sale along with the group’s institutional banking business.
Barclays’ agreed £45bn (€66bn) offer for ABN is an all-share deal but the bank said it was considering alternative offer structures “including the introduction of a partial cash consideration element”.
ABN Amro has backed the Barclays offer as it is reported to be keen to keep the banking operations together under a merger to create the world’s fifth largest bank, rather than see a “dismantling” of the business proposed by the RBS consortium.
