The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) led consortium set to take over Dutch bank ABN Amro is set to announce its offer as unconditional, according to the Times.
The deal would be the biggest banking takeover in history and the consortium are expected to announce that it has secured the backing of 86% of the shareholders, although this is expected to rise when the last of the postal votes begin to arrive.
To be successful, RBS requires 80% of its shareholders to vote in support of their bid but after Barclays withdrew its offer on Friday it comes as no surprise that they have achieved this figure.
An RBS source told the newspaper that Barclays were dead in the water following the consortium’s victory. “Each member of the consortium had overlap within relevant parts of ABN and thats why they could afford to pay more than Barclays,” claims the source.