Barclays Seeks To Buy Holland’s Biggest Bank
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Barclays Plc is in exclusive talks to buy ABN Amro Holding NV, the biggest Dutch bank, in what would be the world’s largest financial-services acquisition.
Barclays, the third-biggest British bank, and ABN Amro are holding “preliminary discussions,” they said in separate statements yesterday. ABN Amro’s stock rose 9.7% to 29.96 euros in Amsterdam, valuing the company at 57 billion euros ($76 billion), after speculation the two banks were in negotiations.
The chief executive officer of Barclays, John Varley, told analysts a month ago that he wants the London-based bank to grow “aggressively.” Acquiring ABN Amro, which has branches in 53 countries and owns LaSalle Bank in Chicago, would help Barclays to extend retail banking outside Britain to Italy and America and build up its securities, asset- and wealth-management arms.
“It makes sense on a strategic and geographical basis,” a London-based fund manager at New Star Asset Management Group Plc, who helps oversee about $34 billion and holds shares of both companies, Guy de Blonay, said. He said any bidder may offer at least 35 euros a share. “Barclays is looking for something in Brazil, more in the U.S., and wants to expand in Italy.”
The companies are aiming to create “a highly complementary partnership,” Barclays and ABN Amro said after the close of trading in Europe. “The talks are at an early and exploratory stage and there can be no certainty that they will lead to a transaction.”
ABN Amro CEO Rijkman Groenink is fending off calls from investors, including TCI Fund Management, for ABN Amro to be broken up as he works to cut expenses on last year’s purchase of Italy’s Banca Antonveneta SpA and loan losses in America, Latin America, and Taiwan.
“The perception is that ABN Amro has been under some pressure for quite some time, so Barclays may not be the only potential predator out there,” an equity strategist at Charles Stanley & Co. in London, Jeremy Batstone, said. “We’re really in the first foothills of what could be quite a prolonged process.”
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Amsterdam-based ABN Amro is resisting overtures from several unidentified suitors, including BNP Paribas SA and Societe Generale SA.
