Companies
Barclays and ABN AMRO discuss merger
The UK banking group,
Barclays, and Dutch bank,
ABN AMRO, are in preliminary merger discussions. These talks are
proceeding on the basis that the combined entity would be headquartered in
Amsterdam with the Dutch Central Bank as its lead regulator.
However, the merged company's primary listing would be
on the London Stock Exchange
with a secondary listing on
Euronext Amsterdam. The new company would also have a UK unitary board
and what the banks described as clear governance and management structures. The
two banks are also proposing that the first chairman would be nominated by ABN
and the first chief executive would be nominated by Barclays.
If the Dutch head office is to become a major operation,
there is substantial scope for confusion, argued
The Guardian’s Nils Pratley (21 March).
On the other hand, suggested Prateley, if it is to be merely a brass plate, the Dutch management will feel hard
done by. However, Pratley said, the bigger issue of the combined group’s main
regulator will have to be decided by the regulators themselves.
Lombard in the Financial
Times (20 March) warned that Barclays’ interest in ABN may only demonstrate
how much more open the UK market is to mergers and acquisitions than continental
Europe. It is not clear whether Barclays will be able to secure a deal giving it
proper control of ABN’s board.
Links
Barclays
ABN AMRO
London Stock Exchange
Euronext Amsterdam
The Guardian
Financial Times
April, 2007 |
