Business Insight Zone

Ah, to be wooed by two rich suitors! While this prospect would have appealed to the heroine of a Jane Austen novel, the reality hasn’t been so happy for ABN AMRO, the big Dutch bank at the heart of an acquisition love triangle. A few months ago, everything seemed so simple: a handsome suitor from London — Barclays PLC — offered to pay ABN a dowry of $90 billion in earnest of his intentions. The match seemed providential for ABN, a well-to-do and comely debutante, to be sure, but not in the same class as ravishing, monied rivals like HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and UBS. In the marriage to Barclays, ABN would command a premium price one-third above the market rate for her shares. She would maintain her integrity as a Dutch bank, taking her suitor’s name, but making a home for the couple in Amsterdam.

Imagine ABN’s shock when a hard-faced suitor from the north — the Royal Bank of Scotland — arrived with his henchmen Banco Santander and Fortis in tow. RBS had more money than the handsome Barclays, to be sure, but none of his charm. Why, he and his allies talked openly of pulling apart ABN’s household — of carving up her assets like so many chops of meat! Oh, how ABN labored to save her betrothal to Barclays, but at every turn she was beset by challenges — from shareholders, in the Dutch courts — it was horrible . . . Barclays turned to friends in Asia, friends of means, to increase his dowry offer, yet the pockets of RBS and his fellows were even deeper. Finally, poor ABN had little choice but to withdraw her promise to Barclays and let the suitors settle the matter between themselves, with her own fate suspended in the balance. The business world awaits the outcome.

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* This article appeared on our Company of the Day page on 16 August 2007.