Hints and tips:
...Regulators would need to be able to block Royal Bank of Scotland’s takeover of ABN Amro, halt Northern Rock’s expansion, and fire Dick Fuld and his associates from Lehman – and that just for starters....
...The wheels came off at the height of the boom in 2007 when he led a consortium (RBS, Fortis and Santander) to acquire ABN Amro....
...At the time, Barclays had just failed to buy ABN Amro, the toxic debt-laden Dutch bank that has subsequently forced government rescues of two of its three acquirers, Royal Bank of Scotland and Fortis....
...But the most memorable was the battle for control of ABN Amro, which was triggered by a letter to the Dutch bank from The Children’s Investment Fund, a London-based hedge fund, which demanded ABN either...
...That merger will be reversed, splitting in two what had become the biggest listed Dutch financial group following the break-up of ABN Amro two years ago....
...The banking group did make a number of rash acquisitions, however, including the ill-fated purchase of Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007 using wholesale market funding....
...Marx is singing in his grave there in London as the US government now controls the auto, mortgage, insurance, banking, et al industries and he has not fired a shot....
...By its own calculations, Fortis needed at least another €5bn of capital a year or so down the line, as it started to fold in the largest part of the ABN Amro business it bought last year....
...At first glance, the recent career paths of the European bankers who masterminded last year’s audacious €72bn ($98bn, £64bn) takeover and break-up of ABN Amro could hardly be more different....
...Amro units before the credit crunch....
...Transformational deals, such as last year’s €71bn ($110bn) break-up bid for ABN Amro, are out. The focus is on strengthening capital reserves and improving access to liquidity....
...Royal Bank of Scotland, which has been the subject of intense speculation after last year stretching its capital ratios to finance its share of the acquisition of ABN Amro, has been equally emphatic....
...But Merrill has used its balance sheet to finance Royal Bank of Scotland’s $105bn break-up bid for ABN Amro last year and last Friday, financed Iberdrola’s €478m sale of its stake in Galp, the Portuguese...
...However, Merrill has used its balance sheet in the recent past, financing Royal Bank of Scotland’s €71bn ($105bn) break-up bid for ABN Amro last year....
...This suggests that ABN Amro’s share price would be about €21.95. The RBS offer for ABN Amro is roughly €38 a share – equivalent to a premium of more than 70 per cent....
...Reuters, the news and financial information group, fell 1.7 per cent to 596p as ABN Amro urged its clients to sell....
...ABN Amro rated BBVA a “buy”, saying investors had ignored its strong growth prospects because they were underweight on the sector as a whole....
...JP Morgan, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro, Standard Chartered and HSBC all want a chunk of the pie. Mid-sized groups, such as Rothschild, and even professional services firms are also in the race....
...And even before the credit crisis, Barclays strengthened its bidding power for ABN Amro by raising €3.6bn from China Development Bank and Singapore’s Temasek, in return for stakes of 3.1 and 2.1 per cent...
...Following the successful hedge fund campaign to force ABN Amro, the Dutch bank, to put itself up for sale, some observers have suggested UBS might come under similar pressure....
...Drax Group, the operator of the UK’s biggest coal fired power station, was marked 4.1 per cent lower at 608p on the back of an ABN Amro downgrade to “sell”....
...Unlike the business of actually making things — which moved to China et al years ago, flattening global economics — the world of high finance, we were told, remained notably curvaceous....
...Royal Bank of Scotland, off just 0.4 per cent at 581p, managed to avoid the worst of selling thanks to late rumours that it was set to lower its €72.4bn bid for Dutch bank ABN Amro....
...On FT Alphaville this morning, - Another twist in the ABN Amro takeover. And this time it’s RBS et al on the back foot....
...ABN Amro also will announce this week it is joining LiquidityHub, reports the Journal....
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