Thursday, May 03, 2007

Next step: Dutch judge forbids sale of LaSalle by ABN AMRO

In continuation of the ABN AMRO take-over sequel todays the news is about the court ruling by the Enterprise Chamber. It ruled that the sale of LaSalle by ABN AMRO be stopped/canceled. Which will lead to further litigations of course. Share prices rose on the news as it increases the odds for the RBS consortium to take over ABN AMRO.

Also, today there was a second court ruling on ABN AMRO as well. It found ABN AMRO and Goldman Sachs guilty of not informing the public properly on the IPO of World Online in 2002. Again it was the proactive association of share holders (named VEB) that sued ABN AMRO and won this case. VEB will further pursue a lawsuit for compensations of damages to the 11000 share holders they represent (which may lower the price for ABN AMRO a little).

In sum: everything is possible once again. Yet I can't imagine how the board of commissioners/supervisors would let chairman of the director continue functioning in office. So either they leave him formally in place so that he can continue finishing this deal (while informally the commissioners require him to ask for their approval on all his actions) or they kick him out and sort out the work himself. Either way it is quite likely that further lawsuits be started to sue either the managing director of ABN AMRO or the board of Commissioners.

So I wouldn't at all be surprised if we soon hear that someone has to take the fall and steps down....