Page 2 - RBS – ABN takeover

RBS – ABN TAKEOVER: Cui Bono

The battle is over! All that is left is the division of the spoils of the largest takeover

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bid for a European bank. On 8 October, 2007 about 86% of ABN Amro's

shareholders accepted a €70.6bn ($99.8bn; £49bn) offer, €66 billion of which

was in cash, by a consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland, Britain’s second

largest bank, to secure the world’s biggest ever banking takeover and the first

time any large European bank had succumbed to a cross-border hostile bid.

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Barclays’ decision on 5 October to withdraw from the conflict came after it

obtained less than 1% of the share acceptances for its €62.2 bn ($87.9 bn) cash

(37%)-and-equity (63%) bid. It had required 80% backing from ABN’s 1.9bn

outstanding shares. This left the field to the consortium to acquire the Dutch bank

and split it three ways. The break-up involved 4,500 branches across 53

countries and unravelling businesses ranging from cash management operations

in Asia to retail banking in Brazil.

Barclays' withdrawal had been widely expected as its cash-and-shares offer had

been undermined by the worldwide sell-off in banking stocks in the wake of the

credit squeeze following on from the collapse of the US sub-prime market in

October 2007. It was 13 percent below the mostly cash RBS-led bid.