 Mumbai:
A consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has
offered to buy Duch banking giant ABN AMRO for a total
71.1 billion euros ($95.6 billion), consortium member
Fortis said.
The
planned offer of 30.40 euros in cash plus 0.844 new shares
in RBS values ABN AMRO at 38.40 euros per share.
The
consortium of RBS, Fortis and Santander expects aggregate
estimated cost savings of 4.23 billion euros and estimated
profit growth from revenue benefits of 1.22 billion euros
by the end of 2010.
Royal
Bank will pay 27.2 billion euros, Fortis 24 billion euros
and Santander 19.9 billion euros in the transaction, a
statement issued by Fortis said.
"Because
of the banks'' comprehensive strategic fit with ABN AMRO
across its activities, the banks expect that ... they
will be able to create stronger businesses with enhanced
market presence and growth prospects," the statement
said.
The
proposed offer is not subject to any financing condition,
with capital raisings fully underwritten, but is conditional
on ABN AMRO shareholders voting against ABN''s planned
sale of its US unit, LaSalle, to Bank of America, Fortis
said.
Fortis
plans to raise 15 billion euros of new equity via a rights
issue and up to 5 billion euros of new Tier 1 capital,
and to release up to 8 billion euros of capital.
RBS
would issue new shares worth about 15 billion euros to
ABN AMRO shareholders and raise another 6 billion euros
of new non-dilutive Tier 1 capital with the rest coming
from internal resources.
Santander
plans to raise approximately 9.5-10 billion euros of new
equity via rights issue and convertible instruments, amounting
to approximately half of its share of the consideration,
and the remainder through balance sheet optimisation and
leveraged financing, the statement said.
The
consortium has so far been rebuffed by ABN management,
which has agreed to an all-share takeover by Britain''s
Barclays currently valued at 63 billion euros.
The
Dutch bank on May 7 rejected the Royal Bank-led group''s
$24.5 billion approach for LaSalle Bank, an offer contingent
on an agreement to buy the rest of the company. The current
offer for ABN Amro is conditional on the Dutch courts
upholding the LaSalle ruling and shareholders rejecting
the sale to Bank of America.
The
group said it plans to set aside about 1.85 billon euros
of the bid ``pending resolution of the LaSalle situation.''''
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