The battle for ABN Amro is nearing a close with the consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) expected to come out as the winner.
At 13:00 hrs GMT the bid from RBS expires a day after the bid from Barclays finished. The predominantly cash made bid from RBS, Fortis, and Santander of $100.2 billion is expected to beat the lower bid from Barclays.
Speculation surrounding the bid states that if RBS wins the deal then Barclays could face a takeover bid from outside investors. The deal is set to be the biggest in banking takeover history and some have predicted that Barclays will admit defeat as early as today.
The winner is expected to be announced by 19 October and Rijkman Groenink, chief executive told Reuters that the period of uncertainty for the banks’ employees was nearly over.