Dutch bank ABN AMRO on Monday withdrew its backing of a takeover bid from Barclays and said it was no longer formally recommending offers from the British bank or a Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium, Reuters reports.
The Netherlands’ biggest bank, which faces competing offers of 65.6 billion euros ($89.55 billion) from Barclays and 71 billion euros from the consortium of RBS, Fortis of Belgium and Spain’s Santander, also reported a 7.1 percent decline in quarterly net profit.
ABN originally backed Barclays when announcing a deal to merge with it in April.
But it has now effectively withdrawn its recommendation even after Barclays sweetened its offer to buy ABN last week to include more cash.
ABN’s boards — the supervisory board and managing board — said they were currently not in a position to recommend the offers from Barclays or the consortium.
“ABN AMRO will further engage with both parties with the aim of continuing to ensure a level playing field and minimising any of the uncertainties currently associated with the offers with a view to optimising the attractive alternatives available to ABN AMRO’s shareholders,” ABN says in a statement.