Wednesday, May 30, 2007

ABN AMRO's Supervisory Board steps in with Transaction Committee

ABN AMRO announces that in response to the bid of the Consortium, the Supervisory Board has formed a Transaction Committee (the "Transaction Committee") composed of the members of the Special Committee, being Arthur Martinez, chairman of the Supervisory Board, André Olijslager, vice-chairman of the Supervisory Board and Rob van den Bergh.

The Transaction Committee will liaise with the Managing Board and key staff and advisers of the Bank on an ongoing basis on all matters with respect to the recommended offer by Barclays Plc. for ABN AMRO as announced on 23 April 2007 and with respect to the proposed offer as announced on 29 May 2007 by the Consortium of Royal Bank of Scotland, Banco Santander and Fortis.

Of course it is a sensible thing to install such a Committee. But why throw in a press release or such an obvious thing. It does seem to reflect that the Commissioners at ABN AMRO may be getting scared that they may be held partially responsible if things go wrong. Or perhaps they are just being transparent...