Barclays PLC’s planned $102.1 billion takeover of ABN AMRO is now in limbo following a court decision that blocked the sale of LaSalle Bank to the second-largest financial institution in the United States.

The takeover agreement by Barclays, which would create the world’s largest institutional asset manager, was dependent on the sale of ABN unit to Bank of America.

The court ruled that shareholders should be allowed to vote on the sale of LaSalle, but ABN argued the $23.6 billion deal was too small to require shareholder approval.

This ruling increases the chances that a group led by Royal Bank of Scotland will prevail in its unsolicited bid for the Dutch bank.

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