Dutch shareholder rights group VEB said on Friday it filed a suit attempting to prevent ABN Amro from selling its United States arm, LaSalle Bank, to Bank of America Corporation for $21-billion.
VEB chief Peter de Vries said the LaSalle sale, announced by ABN Amro on Monday along with a merger agreement with Barclays, was an attempt by ABN Amro to foil a possibly higher hostile takeover offer worth as much as $100-billionfrom a consortium of three banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland, which wants to divvy up ABN’s operations.
VEB is seeking an injunction ”to freeze the sale of LaSalle, because that’s a decision that should be presented to shareholders”, De Vries said late on Thursday after the company’s chaotic annual shareholder meeting. At one point in the meeting De Vries was escorted from the stage by security guards after attempting to seize a microphone.
”As far as we’re concerned [the LaSalle sale] is a trick to prevent ABN from being taken over by a party other than Barclays,” he said.
A spokesperson for VEB confirmed on Friday that the request for an injunction had been filed at the Amsterdam District Court and judges were expected to set a hearing date ”very quickly” — possibly later in the day.
Shareholders agreed with VEB in a vote at ABN Amro’s shareholder meeting, voting to approve a motion placed on the agenda by British hedge fund TCI, declaring that ABN Amro’s management should agree in principle to split or sell the company.
After the vote, CEO Rijkman Groenink said ”we will hold reckoning with what our shareholders recommend to us, and just make sure we have a strategy, a policy, that takes our shareholders’ interests into consideration”.
ABN’s stock has risen by more than 33% since the proposal by TCI to split the company was made in February. TCI currently holds nearly 3% of the shares.
At the meeting, Groenink said nothing was stopping RBS and its allies, Spain’s Banco Santander Central Hispano SA and Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis NV, from making a counter-bid for LaSalle and or all of ABN.
While RBS wants LaSalle, Santander wants ABN’s Italian and Brazilian arms and Fortis wants the Dutch operations.
ABN consented to allow the consortium members to perform due diligence, but insisted the LaSalle sale would go through to the highest bidder.
”We are receptive to any compelling offer that offers value for our shareholders,” Groenink said.
”I hope another bidder [for LaSalle] comes forward,” he said.
”If that’s RBS, who have expressed interest, I’m not stopping them. Let them put their offer on the table.” — Sapa-AP