Bank of America Corp. officials have to wait until at least
late June or early July for the Dutch Supreme Court ruling on whether or not
ABN Amro Bank NV can sell Chicago-based LaSalle Bank Corp. to the Charlotte,
N.C.-based bank. The Dutch Supreme court is currently hearing appeals from
Bank of America and ABN Amro over the deal, which was frozen by a lower Dutch
court, known as the Amsterdam Enterprise Chamber, last month. The commercial
court sided with calls from investors for the deal to be frozen in order to
allow a shareholder vote. A Financial Times report says Bank of America in its
appeal accused the Enterprise Chamber of breaching European Union and Dutch
law with its decision to suspend the LaSalle sale. The Dutch Supreme Court's
decision on LaSalle would certainly impact the fate of ABN. The Dutch bank is
weighing a €71 billion ($96 billion) buyout proposals by the Royal Bank of
Scotland plc, Fortis and Banco Santander Central Hispano SA against a €64
billion all-share offer by Barclays plc. The Barclays offer is conditional on
the successful sale of LaSalle to Bank of America, while the consortium made
its offer contingent on the Chicago-based bank staying with ABN. —Gerald
Magpily
See
Reuters story from MSNBC
See
AFX Ltd. article via Forbes.com
See
The Deal.com article - June 5, 2007
Continue reading below
