DUTCH investor group VEB yesterday said it would continue with the procedure to have the Dutch commercial court investigate ABN Amro's handling of the takeover bidding war between the Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium and Barclays.
At the same time, VEB also said it had withdrawn its request at the Dutch commercial court to nominate independent board members at ABN.
VEB had previously sought to have the sale of the LaSalle bank in Chicago, one of ABN's prized assets, frozen until its request to have three independent representatives appointed to ABN's supervisory board met.
However, that request is now no longer valid following a court ruling last week allowing the sale of LaSalle to Bank of America for $21bn.
In the latest twist in the protracted war for the Dutch bank, Royal Bank on Monday sweetened its bid for ABN by increasing the cash portion of its offer in an effort to swipe the biggest takeover in banking history from under the nose of Barclays.
The proposed bid of 71.1bn (£48bn) by the Royal Bank and its partners - Fortis of Belgium and Spain's Banco Santander Central Hispano - is worth about 11% more than the all-share bid by Barclays.
ABN yesterday confirmed that it had received the revised bid from the Royal Bank-led consortium, and said it would now assess that bid against the one from Barclays.
The Dutch bank, in a statement yesterday, said: "Under the terms of Merger Protocol dated April 23, 2007, ABN Amro will also discuss with Barclays their offer and the implications of the consortium's revised proposed offer."
ABN also said it would meet with a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland.
Meanwhile, Barclays yesterday remained defiant in the wake of Royal Bank's enhanced offer.
Barclays said it had the flexibility to sweeten its own all-share offer, but added it had no plans to take on partners.
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