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Barclays drops bid for ABN Amro

October 05, 2007

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London—Barclays has abandoned its six-month battle to buy ABN Amro Holding NV—the Amsterdam, Netherlands-based bank that is the largest financier in the diamond industry—clearing the way for Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group Plc and two partners to complete the biggest banking takeover.

According to published reports, investors in ABN Amro had tendered about 0.2 percent of their shares to Barclays, based on figures released by the bank today. The London-based Barclays' offer of 62.8 billion euros ($89 billion) was competing with a bid of about 72 billion euros ($101 billion) from a consortium led by RBS that includes Fortis, a Belgian-Dutch bank, and Banco Santander Central Hispano, Spain's largest bank.

The consortium reportedly plans to carve up ABN Amro. Royal Bank is expected to take the investment-banking and Asian consumer businesses, while Santander will expand into Italy and double its market share in Brazil. Fortis—the largest Belgian financial-services company—will get the Dutch consumer-banking arm and ABN Amro's asset-management and private-banking units, according to Bloomberg.

At this point, it's unclear what impact the RBS-led takeover will have on the diamond business, which is considered a relatively small portion of ABN Amro's total business. Earlier, when Barclays was still in the picture, ABN Amro had already cut back on its industry lending and cleaned out smaller accounts, according to observers. The bank had been impacted in the last year when two major clients—M. Fabrikant and Sons and L.I.D. Ltd.'s U.S. business—filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
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