Barclays versus RBS, Santander and Fortis

Résumé du document

ABN Amro bank comes from the merger between two Dutch banks Algermene Bank Netherlands N.V. and Amsterdam Rotterdam Bank N.V. in 1991. ABN Amro's strategic focus is on consumer and commercial clients in local markets and on corporations and financial institutions in the global market. Currently it is ranked as the eighth largest bank in Europe and the thirteenth in the world. It has five Business Units world wide: Netherlands, Europe, Asia (special focus in China, India, Pakistan, Singapore and Indonesia), North America and Latin America. In 2006 it acquired Antonveneta, the ninth Italian bank according to its number of clients. In 2005 it acquired the Belgian Bank Corluy and in 2004, the Frankfurt based Bethmann and Munich based Maffei.
ABN Amro is based in the Netherlands and adheres to the Dutch Corporate Governance Code. It is listed in Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, and New York exchanges. On March 17th 2006 it was removed from the London Stock Exchange, and announced in January 2007 that it will also delist from Euronext Brussels and Euronext Paris. It is also registered in the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In the New York Exchange the shares are American Depositary Shares represented in American Receipts (ADR) which are equivalent to an ordinary share. On the other hand, the preference shares are listed in Euronext Amsterdam. After a study made in December 2006, 78.1% of the ordinary shares in ABN Amro Holding N.V were identified; of which institutional investors held 87.3% and retail investors held 12.7%. Benelux institutional investors owned 15% of the outstanding ordinary shares. The major holders of depositary receipts of preference shares are: ING Groep N.V. (21,29%); Aviva plc (17,48%); Fortis Utrecht N.V. (16,85%); Kempen Capital Management Ltd (15,02%); Aegon N.V. (14,33%); and Euroko B.V. (12,12%). The depositary receipts of preference shares are issued by the Trust Office (non-membership organization), who holds 100% of the outstanding preference shares, but only has 1.58% of voting power of all the issued capital.

Extraits

[...] Barclays Barclays PLC is a financial services provider operating in over 50 countries worldwide. It is one of the largest financial services providers in the world in terms of market capitalization. It has six major businesses structured under the divisions of Global Retail Commercial Banking (GRCB) and Investment Banking Investment management (IBIM). Barclays is listed on the London Stock Exchange, Tokyo Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange banks” Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is a holding company based in Edinburgh, Scotland and listed on the London stock exchange. [...]

[...] Santander and Fortis are left with the task of raising most of the cash through share issues and asset sales. Santander planned to sell its stakes in Cepsa, the Spanish petroleum company, and Intesa Sanpaolo, the Italian Bank, for a total of about €5bn. The cost of the Dutch operations were estimated to be over €20bn for Fortis, whereas Santander was also expected to pay approximately €20bn for ABN's Brazilian and Italian operations. Merrill Lynch has agreed to underwrite the issue with the support of a bank syndicate or with the help of other sub underwriters such as hedge funds. [...]

[...] Bank of America files a lawsuit against ABN Amro in New York in reaction to this ruling. May RBS submits a $ 24.5 billion bid for La Salle conditional on the success of its offer to buy ABN Amro May ABN Amro rejects RBS $ 24.5 billion offer for La Salle. Overview of banks involved ABN amro ABN Amro bank comes from the merger between two Dutch banks Algermene Bank Netherlands N.V. and Amsterdam Rotterdam Bank N.V. in 1991. ABN Amro's strategic focus is on consumer and commercial clients in local markets and on corporations and financial institutions in the global market. [...]

[...] They also voted in favour of a break-up of the bank, but against the sale of LaSalle to Bank of America. They had been asking the management to provide the consortium with the same information that had been consented to Barclays since the very beginning of the takeover battle. TCI had already threatened legal action against the board should they refuse RBS access to due diligence. The meeting was very agitated as Mr. de Vries promised to legally challenge the sale of LaSalle to Bank of America, claiming it should have been put to a vote. [...]

[...] May ABN studies new LaSalle offer. The Financial Times, p Make or Brake: The Fate of ABN AMRO in: The Economist April Sharpening the Knives in The Economist April Websites http://www.rbs.com/ Home > Media Centre > Press Releases > 2007 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/index_eu.html http://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/ Press Releases www.sec.com Annual Reports Barclays Annual Report 2006 Santander Annual Report 2006 Royal Bank of Scotland Annual Report 2006 Fortis Annual Report 2006 ABN Amro Annual Report 2006 Books Eurostaf (2001). Les grandes banques européennes. Volume 3. [...]