RBS group strides towards hostile ABN offer
Published April 27th, 2007
Three banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland on Friday prepared the way for a hostile bid for ABN AMRO, increasing pressure on the Dutch bank to look beyond an agreed deal with Britain’s Barclays.
The consortium, which also includes Santander and Fortis, formally notified ABN on Friday of their intention to make a public offer — a day after ABN shareholders backed a motion to break up or sell the bank — even though they have not been given unconditional access to ABN’s books.
“Under Dutch regulation, this is effectively the announcement of a hostile bid,” analyst Jean-Pierre Lambert at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said. “This indicates the consortium is quite serious. They can make an offer based on available public financial information.”
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