Dutch ruling on ABN sale

The Royal Bank of Scotland-led bid for ABN Amro was thrown into disarray today as a Dutch Supreme Court ruling gave the go-ahead for the sale of ABN’s American banking operation.

The Court ruled that ABN’s proposed £10.5bn (€15.5bn) sale of LaSalle bank to Bank of America could proceed under Dutch law and would not need to go to a shareholder vote.

The news comes as a blow to the RBS consortium, which had tabled a rival offer to Barclays’ agreed £45bn (€66.5bn) deal for ABN.

RBS had proposed a higher £48.2bn (€71bn) bid, but the offer was conditional on the reversal of the LaSalle sale.