Just when you thought the deal was done, another juicer offer comes along. The parent company of LaSalle Bank (the second biggest bank in the lucrative Chicago banking market) was just about to sell LaSalle to Bank of America—when from out of the sun came The Royal Bank of Scotland with an uninvited offer to take over all of LaSalle’s parent company. Fight! From BusinessWeek (emphasis ours):

Now, however, a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland aims to upset that deal with an uninvited $98.6 billion takeover offer. The Scottish bank would keep LaSalle, while a couple of partners would carve up the remaining ABN Amro operations around the world (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/26/07, “The Making of a Monolith”).

Investors have been enraged at ABN Amro CEO Rijkman Groenink’s plan to sell LaSalle to Bank of America and sell the rest of the company to Barclays despite the more lucrative offer from the Royal Bank group. At an angry shareholder meeting in the Hague, Netherlands, on Apr. 26, one investor charged the stage and was sent back to his seat by guards.

Don’t European business meetings seem much cooler than ours? The CEO of ABN is awaiting a formal offer from the Royal Bank of Scotland. Meanwhile, Bank of America is probably crying and waving its money around. —MEGHANN MARCO

LaSalle Bank Sparks a Duel [BusinessWeek]
(Photo: Michael L)

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