Page 428 - The Case Lab Book

the experience has left the bank stronger, internally, and better prepared for the next assault,
though there are mixed views as to whether Barclays will seek out another target or become one.

Talk of Barclays being subsumed may also be premature. The fact that its shares struggled to get
near the required 800p to match the RBS offer were an indication that there were few potential
acquirers.

"Barclays is likely to wait for a while before it looks again to acquire another large bank, but
eventually it will have to do so in order to compete in the industrialized banking market," Pierron
said.

These concessions make the deal more likely to go through, as other European or U.S. banks may be less
keen to move their head office or switch regulators, said Sage.

Goodwin has led a consortium that has clinched the biggest takeover deal in banking history
marks a major victory over Barclays.

The takeover fight, which began in March, lasted through the fire sale of ABN Amro's U.S. arm,
(NPV) a flurry of lawsuits, legal challenges and turmoil in global credit markets that many
thought would alter the deal substantially.

No wonder then that he regards the recent market turmoil as little more than a feature of the
economic cycle. Accusations that he's overpaying for ABN Amro and that the consortium was
too complex and unwieldy will not bother Goodwin. The word consistently from RBS insiders is
that they not only know about putting businesses together, they are actually rather good at it.

Arrogant, maybe, but the RBS swagger has got it this far and from his imperial headquarters at
Gogarburn Goodwin can now see even further into the future distance after taking a few more
steps up the global banking ladder.

Analysts believe that in five years' time there could be as few as five global banks, able to serve
multinational clients across a single platform and competing increasingly for new business in the
growth markets of Asia-Pacific and South America. While there are occasional questions about
how much longer the Royal's chief executive will stick around, Goodwin himself sees no end to
what can be achieved and he certainly won't settle for anything less than seeing RBS take its
place among the global elite.

Of course there is a lot of work still to be done, but every good general has one eye on the next
battle and while America would have absorbed more of his attention had he secured ABN's
Chicago subsidiary LaSalle, Goodwin has made it clear that Asia-Pac is also where he wants to
be and where he could be looking out for his next target.