LONDON - A banking consortium comprising Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander of Spain and Belgian-Dutch group Fortis said on Monday it had called off a meeting with Dutch bank ABN Amro to discuss a takeover bid.
Earlier Monday, Britain's Barclays announced a friendly takeover deal to buy ABN Amro to create Europe's second-largest bank in the world's biggest ever global banking merger.
Under the agreement, ABN Amro would sell its US unit LaSalle Bank, which it is selling to Bank of America for 21 billion dollars (15.5 billion euros), as a condition of the deal.
However, the Dutch bank had been due to meet the European banking consortium later Monday over a possible separate offer.
"In view of ABN Amro's decision to sell LaSalle Bank to Bank of America, the banks need to understand the circumstances under which this sale can be terminated," the consortium statement said.
"The banks are requesting this information today. Accordingly, the banks do not consider it appropriate to meet with ABN Amro today."
04/23/2007 13:29 GMT