ABN bid: Barclays adds e20-b sweetener

AMSTERDAM: British bank Barclays, which has made a friendly takeover offer for Dutch group ABN Amro, has pledged to invest e20 million in the business department of Amsterdam university if it wins the deal, a university spokesman said on Tuesday. “The investment will take place on condition that Barclays succeeds in its merger with ABN Amro,” the spokesman told a news conference.

The money will be invested in research and training projects within the university’s Amsterdam Business School.
It would invest an initial sum of e10 million ($13.8 million) and the remaining e10 million three years later.

Barclays, which has offered e67 billion for ABN Amro, is competing with a European banking consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland, which has made a hostile e71.1-billion bid.

RBS, Banco Santander of Spain and Belgian-Dutch group Fortis are hoping to persuade ABN Amro to ditch the bid by Barclays that is favoured by the company’s management.

RBS and Barclays are locked in a titanic struggle. The consortium wants to break up ABN Amro, but Barclays is bidding to create a vast global group and the second-biggest bank in Europe after HSBC.

The Barclays bid was boosted last Friday after ABN won Dutch court approval for the sale of its US subsidiary LaSalle, a key component in the takeover. ABN management has backed the Barclays proposal.