LONDON - Investors representing 85 per cent of shares in ABN Amro have accepted a €72 billion ($133 billion) bid for the Dutch bank from a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland, the Financial Times reports.
The newspaper, without naming sources, said the level of acceptances meantthe consortium, which also includes Spain's Santander and Belgian-Dutch group Fortis, could declare its offer unconditional this week.
On Friday (UK time), British bank Barclays withdrew its lower offer for ABN Amro after receiving support from shareholders owning just 0.2 per cent of the Dutch bank's ordinary shares.
Barclays was confident of an independent future, its chief executive, John Varley, said on Friday, dismissing speculation that its failure to win control of ABN Amro could leave it vulnerable to takeover.
Varley said the bank was not dependent on ABN for growth.
In comments set to feed the debate over the €72 billion price tag of the winning ABN bid in a time of market turbulence, he said Barclays had stuck by its opportunistic approach, and refused to overpay.
"We were always very clear that we should pursue this, but pursue it on [our] terms - in particular we should not overpay," Varley said. "It goes with that that we should ... be in a position where we could walk away."
