Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis and Santander pledge $95.5b for Dutch bank. A consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland has increased its offer to $95.5 billion in a hostile takeover bid for Amsterdam-based ABN Amro and includes Chicago-based LaSalle Bank.

The consortium's bid beats out a competing offer from London-based Barclays -- already the largest ever offered for a financial-service company -- by 10%.

Combination

Barclays's proposal calls for Bank of America to step in and buy LaSalle. A Dutch court has stopped the sale of LaSalle to Bank of America, saying that ABN's management failed to get shareholder approval before agreeing to the transaction.

"Given the natural assumption that a consortium approach would bring further complexity, we are pleased to set out a straightforward proposal that is attractive to our own shareholders as well as those of ABN Amro," says Bank of Scotland CEO Fred Goodwin.

If the Royal Bank of Scotland gets its way, it will combine LaSalle with its Providence, R.I.-based Citizens Financial Group bank subsidiary to create, it says, "the fifth largest banking business in the U.S. by assets."

Along with Edinburgh-based Bank of Scotland, the other consortium members are Brussels-based Fortis and Madrid-based Santander . -FWR

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