Bladewatch.com

http://www.reuters.com/article/innovationNews/idUSL0618878620070807

RUSSELS/UTRECHT (Reuters) – Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis (FOR.BR: Quote, Profile, Research) secured overwhelming shareholder approval on Monday to raise 13 billion euros ($18 billion) to finance its part of a bid for ABN AMRO (AAH.AS: Quote, Profile, Research).

Monday’s vote clears a major hurdle for the mostly-cash 71 billion euros offer by Fortis (FOR.AS: Quote, Profile, Research), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Spain’s Santander (SAN.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) for the Netherlands’ largest bank in a bidding war for what will be the biggest ever bank takeover.

Approval by Fortis shareholders of its proposed purchase of ABN AMRO’s Dutch operations and the rights issue gives the RBS-led consortium a boost at a time when the rival Barclays (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research) bid is suffering from the decline of its share price.

Barclays formally launched its mostly share bid of 65 billion euros on Monday.

Over 90 percent of votes at Fortis shareholder meetings in Brussels and the Dutch city of Utrecht backed both Fortis’s proposed bid and the rights issue, one of Europe’s largest ever.

ABN’s management said it would hold a shareholder meeting on September 20 to discuss the competing offers. Its fate, however, will be determined by which bidder its shareholders choose before the offers expire in early October.

Very cool, I wonder which deal the ABN shareholders will feel represents the most interest, the Barclays deal or the RSB Consortium, we’ll need to wait and see.

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