See the article here:
Taking out the middleman, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Bank of America Corp. may come to their own agreement over LaSalle Bank Corp.
The two have been in behind-the-scenes talks over the U.S. retail banking unit owned by ABN Amro Holding N.V. ABN said it will sell LaSalle to BofA for $21 billion as part of a deal to sell the Dutch bank to Barclays Plc. However, Dutch courts ordered ABN to freeze the deal, arguing that the sale needed to be put to shareholder vote.
BofA sued ABN, saying the two had a guaranteed deal to get the Chicago-based LaSalle. And ABN, Barclays and BofA also appealed to the Dutch courts to review the decision to freeze the laSalle sale. Now, with the court battles stagnant, RBS — a rival bidder for ABN and LaSalle — could reach a deal with BofA to own either part of LaSalle or the entire operation.
Quite an interesting turn in this soap-story. In the end we might see all the players of the RBS consortium (except Fortis) achieving their take-over goals...?
