A consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland has launched a 71.1 billion euro ($95.7 billion) bid for Dutch group ABN AMRO, trumping Britain’s Barclays in a battle for the world’s biggest bank takeover, Reuters reports.
In a long-awaited move, the consortium of RBS, Fortis and Santander said on Tuesday it had raised the cash element of its offer from an original proposal but that the bid was conditional on being able to unpick ABN’s sale of its U.S. bank arm.
The offer was pitched at 38.40 euros per ABN share — 30.40 euros in cash plus 0.844 new shares in RBS.
The Barclays agreed offer of 3.225 Barclays shares for every ABN share is currently valued at 64 billion euros or around 34.45 euros a share, based on Barclays share price of 726 pence on Tuesday.
“This (RBS) deal offers better value for ABN shareholders, and we anticipate the consortium winning control,” says Alex Potter, an analyst at Collins Stewart in London.