A group of European banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland has bid $109.8 billion for ABN AMRO, topping a from Barclays PLC.
The bid is subject to a precondition that the Amsterdam-based bank hold on to its U.S. retail banking operations, LaSalle Bank. On Monday, it agreed to sell the division to Bank of America.
The trio, which also includes Belgium’s Fortis and Spain’s Santander, intends to break up ABN.
It is expected RBS will get ABN’s wholesale bank, LaSalle Bank, and its Asian assets. Santander will likely take control of the Italian and Brazilian divisions and Fortis would own the assets in the Netherlands.
In an announcement, ABN said it was “open to discussing their proposals in order to receive further clarification” and plans to meet with the three banks later today.
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