The Dutch shareholders lobby group VEB and hedge fund TCI are angry at ABN Amro’s decision to sell its US bank LaSalle, saying the move has made it more difficult for Royal Bank of Scotland to mount a rival takeover bid for the Dutch bank.

ABN Amro said on Monday it had reached a €67bn deal with Britain’s Barclays. At the same time it announced plans to sell LaSalle to Bank of America for $21bn in cash.
RBS, part of a consortium with Fortis and Santander, wants to break up the ABN Amro group and take over LaSalle itself. News of the sale led RBS to cancel a planned meeting with ABN Amro officials on Monday.
VEB chairman Peter Paul de Vries told TV programme Nova on Monday night that the sale went against the Dutch corporate governance code and that his organisation is considering taking the matter to court.
TCI has demanded complete openness on the LaSalle transaction.