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	However, In July 2007, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that Bank of America's acquisition of LaSalle Bank Corporation could proceed.		However, In July 2007, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that Bank of America's acquisition of LaSalle Bank Corporation could proceed.

	On ] ], Barclays raised its offer for ABN Amro to EUR 67.5bn after securing investments from the governments of China and Singapore, reports Bloomberg. The UK bank’s revised bid is worth EUR 35.73 a share, it said today, 4.3% more than its previous offer. The offer, which includes 37% cash, remains below the EUR 38.40-a-share offer made the week before by Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Banco Santander SA, and Fortis. Their revised offer didn´t include an offer for La Salle bank, since ABN AMRO could proceed with the sale of that subsidiary to Banc of America. RBS would now settle for ABN´s ~~investmetnbanking~~ division and its Asian Network.		On ] ], Barclays raised its offer for ABN Amro to EUR 67.5bn after securing investments from the governments of China and Singapore, reports Bloomberg. The UK bank’s revised bid is worth EUR 35.73 a share, it said today, 4.3% more than its previous offer. The offer, which includes 37% cash, remains below the EUR 38.40-a-share offer made the week before by Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Banco Santander SA, and Fortis. Their revised offer didn´t include an offer for La Salle bank, since ABN AMRO could proceed with the sale of that subsidiary to Banc of America. RBS would now settle for ABN´s investment banking division and its Asian Network.
	China Development Bank will invest EUR 2.2bn in Barclays, and a further EUR 7.6bn if the bid for ABN Amro succeeds. Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte, the city-state's investment arm, will invest EUR 1.4bn initially, and an additional EUR 2.2bn upon the purchase of ABN Amro. The RBS offer is still financially the better of the two but the long term growth potential of the Chinese backed Barclays offer may yield more for investors in the future. The final outcome will be decided in the coming months.		China Development Bank will invest EUR 2.2bn in Barclays, and a further EUR 7.6bn if the bid for ABN Amro succeeds. Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte, the city-state's investment arm, will invest EUR 1.4bn initially, and an additional EUR 2.2bn upon the purchase of ABN Amro. The RBS offer is still financially the better of the two but the long term growth potential of the Chinese backed Barclays offer may yield more for investors in the future. The final outcome will be decided in the coming months.

Revision as of 09:17, 24 July 2007

ABN AMRO Holding N.V.
File:ABN AMRO.png
Company type	Public (Euronext: AAB, NYSE: ABN)
Industry	Financial services
Founded	1991
Headquarters	Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Key people	Rijkman Groenink, CEO
Products	Asset management Commercial banking Investment banking Private banking
Revenue	€19.827 billion (2005)
Operating income	8,618,000,000 Euro (2023)
Net income	2,697,000,000 Euro
Total assets	369,970,000,000 Euro (2023)
Number of employees	105,000
Website	www.abnamro.com

ABN AMRO (Euronext: AAB, NYSE: ABN) is one of the largest banks in Europe and has operations all over the world. With its history going back to 1824, ABN AMRO is the result of the merger in 1991 of Algemene Bank Nederland (ABN) and the Amsterdamsche-Rotterdamsche Bank (AMRO).

ABN AMRO Holding N.V. is the name of the holding company, which is listed on Euronext Amsterdam as part of the AEX index and the New York Stock Exchange, among other exchanges. Its main subsidiary is ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

On April 23 2007, Barclays announced an agreement to buy ABN AMRO in an all-share €67 billion deal, according to Barclays' John Varley "the largest merger ever in the global financial services and the biggest cross-border transaction". In the Barclays offer, ABN AMRO would also sell its US division, Chicago-based LaSalle Bank, to Bank of America in a €16 billion deal, giving the Bank of America, the largest bank of the US an increased presence in the Upper Midwest of the United States. Three other banks, Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis and Banco Santander, acting as a consortium had put forth a competing offer of €74 billion for the bank.

Build up to Acquisition

ABN AMRO had come to a crossroads in the beginning of 2007. The bank had still not come close to their own target of being in the top 5 of their peer group measured on ROE, a target that was set in 2000 by the then just appointed CEO Rijkman Groenink. From 2000 till 2006, the ABN AMRO stock price had remained more or less stagnant.

The financial results for the FY 06 added to concerns about the bank's future. Operating expenses increased at a greater rate than operating revenue reflecting greater operating results difficulties. The efficiency ratio deteriorated further to 69.9%. Non performing loans increased considerably year on year by 192%. Net profits were only boosted by sustained asset sales.

There had been some calls over the last couple of years for ABN AMRO to merge or to be acquired. On February 21 2007, these calls became very concrete, when the TCI hedge fund asked the Chairman of the Supervisory Board to actively investigate a merger, acquisition or break up of ABN AMRO, stating that the current stock price didn't reflect the true value of the underlying assets. TCI asked the chairman to put their request on the agenda of the annual shareholders meeting of April 2007.

Events accelerated when on March 20 2007, Barclays and ABN AMRO both confirmed they were in exclusive talks about a possible merger. On March 28 2007, ABN AMRO published the agenda for the shareholding meeting of 2007. It included all items requested by TCI, but with the recommendation not to follow the request for a break up of the company.

However, on April 13 2007, Royal Bank of Scotland contacted ABN AMRO to propose a deal in which a consortium of banks including RBS, Fortis and Banco Santander Central Hispano will jointly bid for ABN AMRO and thereafter, break up the different divisions of the company. According to the proposed deal, RBS would takeover ABN's Chicago operations, LaSalle, and possibly ABN's wholesale operations while Banco Santander would take the Brazilian operations and Fortis, the Dutch operations.

On April 23 2007, ABN AMRO and Barclays announced their proposed merger. The deal was valued at €67 billion. Part of the deal was the sell of the LaSalle Bank to Bank of America for €21 billion.

On April 25 2007 the RBS led consortium brought out their indicative offer worth €72 Billion, if ABN AMRO would abandon its sale of LaSalle Bank to Bank of America. During the Shareholders meeting the next day a majority of about 68% of the shareholders voted in favour of the break up as requested by TCI.

The sale of LaSalle was seen by many as a way of blocking the RBS bid which hinges on further access to the US markets to expand on the success of the groups existing American brand, Citizens Bank. On May 3 2007 the Dutch investor group VEB, with the support of shareholders representing up to 20 percent of ABN's shares, took its case to the Dutch commercial court in Amsterdam, asking for an injunction against the LaSalle sale. The court ruled on May 3, 2007, that the sale of LaSalle could not be viewed apart from the current merger talks of Barclays with ABN AMRO, and that the ABN AMRO shareholders should be able to approve other possible merger/acquisition candidates in a general shareholder meeting. However, In July 2007, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that Bank of America's acquisition of LaSalle Bank Corporation could proceed.

On July 23 2007, Barclays raised its offer for ABN Amro to EUR 67.5bn after securing investments from the governments of China and Singapore, reports Bloomberg. The UK bank’s revised bid is worth EUR 35.73 a share, it said today, 4.3% more than its previous offer. The offer, which includes 37% cash, remains below the EUR 38.40-a-share offer made the week before by Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Banco Santander SA, and Fortis. Their revised offer didn´t include an offer for La Salle bank, since ABN AMRO could proceed with the sale of that subsidiary to Banc of America. RBS would now settle for ABN´s investment banking division and its Asian Network. China Development Bank will invest EUR 2.2bn in Barclays, and a further EUR 7.6bn if the bid for ABN Amro succeeds. Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte, the city-state's investment arm, will invest EUR 1.4bn initially, and an additional EUR 2.2bn upon the purchase of ABN Amro. The RBS offer is still financially the better of the two but the long term growth potential of the Chinese backed Barclays offer may yield more for investors in the future. The final outcome will be decided in the coming months.

Business units

The business units of ABN AMRO are currently organised by regions:

The Netherlands
Europe (excluding the Netherlands)
North America
Latin America
Asia Pacific

Some of the specialty products and clients of ABN AMRO Bank have a global presence:

Private Clients
Global Clients
Global Markets
Transaction Banking
Consumer Banking
Asset Management

Further, the support functions of ABN AMRO are divided into two global business units:

Group Functions
Services

ABN AMRO ranks eighth in Europe and 13th in the world based on total assets, with more than 4,500 branches in 53 countries, a staff of over 110,000 full-time equivalents and total assets of €999 billion (as of September 30 2006).

The bank has developed a strategy of having three home markets: The Netherlands, the United States, and Brazil. The U.S. commercial banking operations of ABN AMRO consist of LaSalle Bank in Chicago, Illinois and LaSalle Bank Midwest in Detroit, Michigan which operate under the name LaSalle Bank Corporation. LaSalle Bank Midwest is the former Standard Federal Bank, which changed its name on September 12 2005. ABN AMRO also used to operate ABN AMRO Mortgage Group, one of the leading mortgage servicing companies in the US, but in January 2007 it sold this business to Citigroup. In Brazil, ABN AMRO's subsidiary is Banco Real. Banco Real recently completed an acquisition of Sudameris, a peer bank in the Brazilian market.

In 2005 ABN AMRO acquired Banca Antonveneta of Italy, this effectively gave it a fourth home market. Antonveneta had been a cooperation partner for some years and has a similar client base to ABN AMRO.

In March 2007 ABN AMRO announced that it was bidding US$227mn for a 93.4% stake in Pakistan's Prime Bank, and would tender for the remainder. Prime Bank is Pakistan's 19th largest bank and has 52 billion rupees worth of assets and 41 billion rupees in deposits. It has a network of 69 branches in 25 Pakistani cities. The acquisition, when combined with ABN AMRO's existing operations, would make ABN AMRO the second largest foreign bank in Pakistan (after the Standard Chartered Bank, and put it among the 10 largest banks in the country.

Offices

Headoffice ABN AMRO in Amsterdam
Headoffice ABN AMRO Insurance in Zwolle
Renzo Piano designed the Australian offices in Sydney

Trivia

ABN AMRO sponsors AFC Ajax.
In 2005, ABN AMRO entered into a major IT outsourcing contract involving five vendors. This was notable for two reasons: It involved several vendors competing with each other, deviating from the usual exclusivity arrangements prevalent in most outsourcing contracts. Also, it was the largest contract that Indian firms Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys had signed with any Western company at the time.
ABN AMRO sponsors a number of racing sailboats including two entries in the Volvo Ocean Race. On May 18 2006 one of the crew Hans Horrevoets, 32, died after being swept overboard in high seas. Although the boat turned around and picked him up he never regained consciousness, and died.
The ABN AMRO-sponsored "ABN AMRO ONE" won the Volvo Ocean Race 2006
ABN AMRO is the founding partner of NEWS, the platform for Dutch students abroad.

References

External links

v t e AEX companies of the Netherlands
ABN AMRO Adyen Aegon Ahold Delhaize AkzoNobel ArcelorMittal ASM International ASML ASR Nederland BE Semiconductor DSM Firmenich EXOR Heineken IMCD ING KPN NN Group Philips Prosus Randstad RELX Shell Universal Music Group Unilever Wolters Kluwer

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