The Financial Times has reported that the $4.5bn Tosca fund will today warn the Dutch bank ABN Amro not to launch big acquisitions and will call for a merger with a better-run rival. This makes Tosca the second hedge fund to attack the bank, along with TCI, which wants ABN to break itself up.
This new move comes amid controversy over the role of hedge funds at ABN and arguments about aggressive activism from other funds attacking Dutch companies including Stork, the industrial conglomerate, and Ahold, the food retailer.
Tosca’s intervention is particularly significant because its holding company is chaired by Sir George Mathewson, former chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland, Britain’s second – biggest bank. Fred Watt, former RBS finance director, is a non-executive and adviser.