ABN Amro (NYSE:ABN) shares moved up $2.49, or 5.44%, to $48.28 today after the Wall Street Journal reported that the Royal Bank of Scotland officially made a bid for the company. Up until now, the merger talks surrounding the company included only Barclays with mere speculation that there could be others in the mix. The Royal Bank of Scotland is supposedly teaming up with Fortis and Banco Santander Central Hispano to buy ABN and carve it up. It has been widely speculated that other suitors would be willing to pay more than Barclays - especially in the event of a breakup bid.
While ABN management may not be too enthusiastic about these additional bids, a bidding war is certainly in the best interest of shareholders as evidenced by today's jump. We know that one activist investor, The Children's Investment Fund, already announced that it would support the consideration of the RBoS consortium saying: "As ABN Amro shareholders, we believe that the fiduciary duties of the supervisory and management boards require that the Royal Bank of Scotland consortium is allowed to proceed immediately with due diligence on a basis equivalent to Barclays for there to be a fair and transparent process which maximizes shareholder value". Clearly the situation makes ABN a stock
worth watching!
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