See the newssite nu.nl to find out that DNB has withdrawn its supervisory measures with respect to ABN AMRO (see also the previous post and explanation here). In doing so they release ABN AMRO of a grip that would have otherwise also been a burden to the new buyer(s) of ABN AMRO.
This new buyer could well be the RBS-consortium. Rumour in the Dutch press has it that even ABN AMRO itself is now slowly distancing itself from Barclays (who announced this week that they would draw in some Chinese banks to increase their bid). But then again, Mr Groenink also suggested that the RBS bid would have been based on incorrect and old data of the wholesale market for ABN AMRO. To which the consortium replied by explaining that it was ABN AMRO who had given that data in the first place....
Meanwhile pension funds massively regain ownership of their Fortis shares that hey leased out to equity funds. This is all in order to prevent them to bid/choose wrongly during the shareholders meeting of Fortis. So the thing that might happen is that those funds would block a sale to the consortium by blocking the Fortis shareholder vote.
Well, that's the workings of a free market in all its beauty..... ;-)
