He's behind you

10 April 2007 By Mike Verdin

Thanks to its US operations, it should be able to extract synergies not avaliable to Barclays. That should allow it to pay more. But getting into a contested crossborder bid is a huge step. It will probably wait to see what happens with Barclays bid before committing.

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Royal Bank of Scotland, the UK bank, is considering a bid for ABN, the Dutch bank which is in exclusive talks with Barclays, according to reports.

RBS may bid jointly with Spain's Santander, according to the Sunday Telegraph. Sources at Spain's Santander have dismissed the report as pure speculation, according to Spanish wire service Europa Press.

Other reports say that RBS may shelve plans for a full bid if it can do a side deal for LaSalle, ABN's US business.

Nout Wellink, the president of ABN's central bank, said the regulator had no objection in principle to a breakup bid for ABN, according to the Financial Times.

It might be that a solid bank takes over and decides to restructure, he told the newspaper. Well, let them come to the supervisor, and we will look at it, and when it looks fine there will be no problem whatsoever.

RBS may be being advised by Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, according to reports. Goldman Sachs last week quit as adviser to ING, the Dutch bancassurer which had itself been viewed as a potential bidder for ABN.

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