BARCLAYS ABN Amro bank agrees to takeover

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- ABN Amro NV agreed Monday to a 91.16 billion takeover by Barclays PLC and to sell its U.S. assets, holding off a bid by three banks that would have carved up the Netherlands' largest bank.
The proposed chief executive of the new group, Barclays CEO John Varley, called the deal "the largest merger ever in global financial industry," and said it holds out the promise of growth at a rate twice as fast as global gross domestic product.
A combination of the two companies would create one of the world's largest banks by market capitalization.
Barclays offered 49.25 for each ABN share, slightly below Friday's closing price. Varley said the deal represented a 33 percent premium from ABN's price when talks began last month.
Though ABN Amro said the Barclays offer is the best one on the table, it refused to rule out alternative bids and said it would welcome a proposal from a consortium of Royal Bank of Scotland PLC, Spain's Banco Santander Central Hispano SA and Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis NV.
Cancels meeting
But the consortium canceled a meeting set for Monday afternoon after the Dutch bank announced early Monday that it had reached a deal to sell its U.S. unit LaSalle Bank to Bank of America Corp. for 21 billion in cash -- an unexpected move that seemed to catch the consortium off guard.
In view of the LaSalle sale, the consortium asked ABN to inform it by the end of the day "the circumstances under which this sale can be terminated." The deal for LaSalle included a 200 million termination fee.
Both banks said they would recommend the deal to their shareholders, with both also due to hold annual shareholder meetings Thursday. The merger is expected to be completed during the fourth quarter of this year, the banks said.