Banks Go Dutch on ABN Buy

Royal Bank of Scotland consortium expected to succeed with hostile bid

By Peter Fearon, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 14, 2007 5:33 AM CDT

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Banks Go Dutch on ABN Buy — A Barclays Bank sign is seen outside a branch in Croydon, South London. (AP Photo/Sang Tan) (Associated Press)

The race to buy Dutch bank ABN Amro is in the final stage—with a consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland apparently on the inside track ahead of Barclays. The consortium has already won agreement from ABN and the Dutch government, but has yet to raise the $99 billion it needs for the purchase, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Barclays and the RBS consortium, which includes Dutch-Belgian bank Fortis and Spain's Banco Santander, have been vying for ABN Amro for more than six months. Barclays' last hope is that their rivals' financing will collapse, a possibility in the ongoing global credit crunch. "I guess they weren't thinking that this whole liquidity crisis would continue this long," said on analyst.
(More Barclays stories.)

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