Following Monday’s announcement that ABN Amro and Barclays had reached an agreement on the terms of a merger, a rival bid by a consortium of banks might have put a snag in the offer.
The Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis and Banco Santander together have offered the Euro-equivalent of about $98 billion for ABN Amro, about $7 billion more than the Barclays offer.
However, the consortium’s offer included ABN Amro’s LaSalle bank, which ABN has said it would sell independently for $21 billion. The Barclays offer of about $91 billion excluded LaSalle, according to information released by ABN.
But ABN already has made a tentative agreement to sell LaSalle to Bank of America, although a clause in the deal allows ABN to consider rival offers between now and 6 May, it said in a statement today.
It is yet unclear where ABN Amro stands on the offer.