The banking consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland has made an official €71.1bn offer for Dutch banking group ABN Amro. The trio are bidding €38.40 per share, of which 79% will be paid in cash, the rest in RBS shares.

The consortium, which also includes Fortis and Santander, says the offer depends on the outcome of the legal battle over the sale of LaSalle to Bank of America. ABN Amro announced that sale the same day it said it had agreed to be taken over by Barclays.
The consortium expects the takeover of ABN Amro to deliver cost savings of €4.23bn by the end of 2010. Fortis expects the takeover to boost its earnings per share by 4.3%.
The three banks say their bid is better than that made by Barclays, pointing out it is €8.6bn higher and is a largely cash offer. The Barclays bid of €36.25 per share is a share swap. The UK bank expects cost benefits of €3.5bn by the end of 2010.
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