Three banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said today they were ready to make an unsolicited offer for ABN Amro.
The consortium, which also includes Spain's Santander and Belgian-Dutch group Fortis, said earlier this week it had proposed a €72 billion bid for the Dutch bank, trumping an earlier agreed offer with Britain's Barclays.
But their proposed offer was conditional on ABN scrapping its planned $21 billion sale of US unit LaSalle Bank - a key asset for suitor RBS - to Bank of America.
The banks said today that the conditions of that sale - which include a clause allowing ABN until midnight on May 6th to seek higher bids for the US unit - prompted the formal notification to ABN's board late last night.
ABN said yesterday it would allow the banks due diligence subject to confidentiality clauses - which the suitor banks later said included a 12-month provision precluding an unsolicited offer.
The banks said in a statement that under Dutch regulation they are not permitted to provide details of the price they had indicated in their notice to ABN's boards.