A consortium of businesses including the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has confirmed it will be making a public offer for Dutch bank ABN Amro.
The group, including Spanish bank Santander and Belgium-based financial services firm Fortis, confirmed that they announced to the boards of ABN Amro yesterday evening of their "intention to make a public offer for 100 per cent of the issued and outstanding share capital of ABN Amro on a fully diluted basis".
However the offer is dependent on the revoking of a deal by ABN Amro to sell US bank LaSalle to the Bank of America.
The offer comes from the consortium despite British bank Barclays already agreeing a merger with the Dutch bank in a deal worth around £45.5 billion.
The proposed merger of the pair, expected to complete during the fourth quarter of 2007, would create a joint client base of 47 million customers with around 90 per cent of its clients in seven key markets.
Amsterdam-based ABN Amro and Barclays predict that the potential merger will result in annual pre-tax profits of approximately €3.5 billion (£2.3 billion) by 2010, boosted by its reach across Europe.
However many analysts believe a bidding war could now take place between the consortium and Barclays.
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