Mumbai: A consortium of three banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland has offered to acquire Dutch bank ABN AMRO for 71.1 billion euros ($98 billion), revising their earlier offer with more cash, in an attempt to beat rival suitor Barclays.

The consortium, which includes Spain ''s Santander and Belgian-Dutch group Fortis, kept its offer for ABN at 38.4 euros per share, 10 per cent above Barclays'' all-share offer of about 35 euros per share, worth about 64 billion euros ($88 billion).

The trio raised the cash component of the bid to 93 per cent from 79 per cent earlier.

The RBS-led consortium raised its offer on the condition that the LaSalle unit, which ABN agreed to sell to Bank of America for $21 billion, remained part of the bank.

RBS wanted LaSalle to bolster its US operations. The group had even planned to withhold 1 euro per share to cover costs for litigation over ABN''s LaSalle bank unit.

The legal battle, however, ended after the Dutch Supreme Court said ABN could sell Chicago-based LaSalle. RBS would now receive its share of the cash from the sale of the business instead.

The increase in cash on offer by the trio follows the Dutch court ruling that allowed ABN to sell its US bank LaSalle to Bank of America for $21 billion.
RBS cut the amount of cost savings and revenue benefits it expects to achieve from the deal as the exclusion of LaSalle means there will now be less opportunity to grow revenues in its enlarged North American business.

The three banks plan to divide ABN Amro''s businesses, which span 53 countries from Brazil to India , while Barclays has pledged not to break the Dutch bank.

Santander, Spain''s biggest bank, would expand into Italy and double its market share in Brazil with the acquisition. Fortis, the largest Belgian financial-services company, is seeking the Dutch retail banking arm and ABN Amro''s asset-management and private bank units to create a ``Benelux leader.''''

RBS and its partners are better able to cut costs and drive gains out of ABN Amro than Barclays, analysts and investors say, citing Royal Bank''s track record for successfully integrating acquisitions, including its $37.8 billion purchase of London-based National Westminster Plc in 2000.

The RBS-led group has said it can get 4.63 billion euros of cost and revenue gains out of ABN Amro annually by 2010, excluding LaSalle. That compares with 3.5 billion euros from Barclays.