On 3 May 2007, a Dutch court ruled against ABN Amro selling-off its American based subsidiary, LaSalle, for €15.5 billion to Bank of America (BoA), arguing that investors had to be consulted ahead of the deal.
The takeover agreement between ABN Amro and Barclays, which could make way for the creation of the world’s fifth largest bank, heralds the sell-off of LaSalle to BoA. UK's second-largest bank, Barclays, had threatened to sue ABN Amro for breaking their agreement.
However, the Dutch shareholder group VEB, which has contested the sell-off before a tribunal in the Netherlands, had argued that the LaSalle deal was a "poison pill" set to fend-off the offer by the RBS consortium. The group had demanded that the deal to be put to shareholders approval.
The Royal Bank of Scotland consortium is said to be keen to incorporate LaSalle as part of its ABN Amro takeover in order to merge it with its existing US operations.
