Sunday, May 06, 2007

RBS Consortium bids for LaSalle: US$ 24,5 billion

A new day/event in the ABN AMRO story. FD reports that the RBS consortium has overbidden Bank of America to buy LaSalle. And the purchase condition is that LaSalle remains a part of ABN AMRO and that the three will not wish to be paying for any of the damages as a result of the Bank of America lawsuit.

Stuff is really getting complicated now. Because until the last day of the open period in which one could bid for LaSalle, there would have been no reasons for Bank of Amercia to start sueing. Nevertheless they immediately started to sue after the ruling of the Dutch Enterprise Court. So this can only mean that we are now less than one step away from the RBS Consortium sueing the Bank of America for obstruction or improper conduct (or whichever legal term one might find to desrcibe this premature litigation battle). Because if as Bank of America you have a signed a buying agreement which is quite advantageous to you if the deal would not come through, you should simply wait out your time/turn and take your losses if you can't match a bid.

This will most certainly become another interesting week !