BizJournals Portfolio
Home >   Business Views, Opinions and Blogs >   Business Blogs >   Market Movers >  

Rbs Acquisition Of Abn Amro More Likely Than Ever

Market Movers

by Yves Smith and Felix Salmon
Main
An Interactive Guide to the Econoblogosphere   Proof that Manhattan is Still the Capital of the World

Recent Blog Posts

Links

Sep 28 2007 12:00am EDT

RBS Acquisition of ABN Amro More Likely Than Ever

In the battle for ABN Amro, the consortium of RBS, Fortis, and Santander has now clearly bested its rival, Barclays. The RBS consortium's bid is about 20% higher than Barclays' bid, thanks largely to Barclays' sinking stock price, and Barclays now looks much more like a takeover target itself than a serious suitor for the Dutch giant.

And so it is that the RBS consortium, having seen off Barclays, is now turning its attention to the one last obstacle standing in its way: ABN Amro's shareholders. They might prefer the consortium's bid to Barclays' bid, but what if a lot of them prefer no bid at all, and would rather their bank remain independent? At the moment, the consortium requires 80 percent of ABN shareholders to accept its offer for it to be declared unconditional, which means that an apathetic 20%, simply not voting at all, could throw a nasty spanner in the works.

So the 80% figure might not last long: the consortium announced today that it might accept just a simple majority of acceptances. The move makes the consortium's bid seem a little bit weaker than it was before, but that's not a major worry: after all, to all intents and purposes the consortium is now the sole bidder for ABN Amro. There might be a small question mark over getting 80%, while 50% is a foregone conclusion, thanks to the number of arbitrageurs in the stock.

blog comments powered by Disqus
Real Business, Real Results
Out of the 'Family'

Did anyone at Microsoft ever watch the (gasp!) offensively funny show Family Guy?

Cruz Missile Lands

Ex-Morgan Stanley exec Zoe Cruz is now heading her own hedge fund. Are Wall Street's leaders done?

Scandal Chic

Martha, Bernie and Skilling know that what you wear for court can go a long way in public perception.

spotlight on

Health Care

Bad to the Bone No More

Companies such as General Mills say they're stepping up efforts to change employees' bad behavior and promote healthier lifestyles. Read More