LONDON: Royal Bank of Scotland, which is bidding to buy ABN Amro, said it is not engaged in talks with Bank of America any more over the purchase of LaSalle Bank, the U.S. arm of ABN Amro. The deal is mired in controversy as Bank of America bought LaSalle from ABN Amro and RBS and its allies are offering to buy ABN Amro along with LaSalle.
Sir Fred Goodwin, chief executive of RBS, said the talks with Bank of America had ended after the two sides failed to agree on a price. He, however, said the bank is open to further talks with Bank of America in an effort to overcome the impasse in the negotiations involved in the 71-billion-euro offer to acquire ABN Amro.
ABN Amro had agreed to sell La Salle to Bank of America for $21 billion, as part of its acceptance of a $66 billion offer from Barclays for the entire group. A Dutch court had stayed the purchase and is expected to give its ruling in July whether ABN Amro should secure a shareholders' approval for the sale. Bank of America has in turn threatened legal action if ABN Amro failed to honor the agreement
RBS, along with its allies -- Santander and Fortis -- had formally launched the offer for ABN, which is worth about 10 per cent more than the offer by Barclays. The offer is conditional on LaSalle also becoming part of the deal.
The bank said its first-half earnings will rise more than 8.1 per cent, topping analysts' estimates. Profit will be 72.1 pence a share, the bank said.
It also said the earnings have gone up as consumer-loan losses in the country have generally declined.
