Barclays plans to submit a formal bid for Dutch bank ABN Amro within six weeks. The British Banking Giant said yesterday that it had plans to table an official offer somewhere in July.
Barclays also added that the group was making ‘excellent progress‘ in its plans to take over Dutch bank ABN Amro. In an update required by Dutch regulators, Barclays said that it and ABN expect to complete most of the regulatory filings by the end of May. Barclays looked confident regarding its Euro65 billion (£45bn) offer for ABN and anticipated that the competition would soon fade away. It added that the banks have jointly conducted a competition analysis and concluded that there were no major ‘antitrust issues’ involved.
Barclays filed the statement in accordance with Dutch securities laws, which require a company to update investors regarding the status of the offer within 30 calendar days of the bid. Barclays made the preliminary offer on April 23. The statement, issued yesterday, read:
Barclays and ABN Amro are making excellent progress in respect of these regulatory processes, and by the end of May, expect to have completed substantially all of the relevant filings.
Barclays added that it expected to have won approval from most of the regulatory it needed to allow the deal. There are 108 regulatory authorities in 53 countries with whom a ‘change of control’ filing needs to be made. Change of control consent is required from 55 of them. The applications for the UK and the Netherlands have already been filed with the relevant authorities.
RBS consortium’s stance
In the meantime, RBS-led consortium has said that it will make its position clear on the bid this Sunday. This fact was brought to light by Fortis chairman Maurice Lippens. Fortis is a part of consortium of RBS and Spain’s Santander, which made a rival bid for ABN Amro. The consortium’s informal bid, which valued ABN at Euro71 billion (£49bn), was turned down by ABN. Murice Lippens said yesterday, ‘We are still deliberating our position.’ The proposed takeover has been dragged into legal disputes and Lippens said:
That is why today we cannot take a definite position ... Rest assured, we are considering every option because it’s a minefield indeed. The 27th of May is also the date on which the banks of this consortium will clarify their position.
The deal is entangled in legal complications as ABN tried to sell its LaSalle Bank to Bank of America. This decision was successfully challenged in the Amsterdam commercial court. RBS and its partners have said that they would better Barclays offer but only if they can cancel LaSalle sale, which it views as a part of the overall acquisition plans.
We can expect the consortium to table a formal proposal, withdraw from the race or ask for an extension, come this Sunday. There is no doubt that ABN prefers a merger with Barclays, but RBS and friends obviously have other plans. This one is going to take a while to resolve.
