Dutch financial services provider ABN Amro has officially dropped its support for the company's potential takeover by Barclays, on the grounds that the UK bank's offer is of a lower value than the proposed offer of its rival, a Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium.
While Barclays has a similar strategic vision to the Dutch lender, the board of ABN Amro said that it couldn’t currently recommend the offer from a financial viewpoint.
The latest bidding round saw the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)-led consortium raise the cash component of its bid to 93%, which prompted Barclays to also raise its offer to E67.5 billion. According to Bloomberg, the E72 billion offer from the consortium is 9.8% higher than the Barclay’s bid.
Despite withdrawing its support for Barclays, ABN Amro has pledged that it will continue to engage in talks with both companies and currently takes a neutral stance between the two organizations.