The European Union (EU) gave the green light on Monday to the proposed acquisition by British banking giant Barclays of its Dutch peer ABN Amro.
The European Commission, the EU's executive body, said in a statement that the takeover bid would not significantly impede effective competition in the EU or any substantial part of the bloc.
London-based Barclays, a global financial services provider, is active in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services. It operates in more than 60 countries and, within the EU, is predominantly active in Britain, where it is the third-largest bank.
For its part, ABN Amro, an international banking group, is active worldwide in personal banking, private banking, business and commercial clients and corporate and institutional clients. In the EU, ABN Amro is predominantly active in the Netherlands.
The Commission said that even if the two banks secure a merger deal, the combined entity would still face sufficient competition from a number of operators.
The decision paves the way for Barclays' takeover bid for ABN Amro, which was officially launched Monday and worth more than 90 billion U.S. dollars.
Barclays said in a statement on Monday that it is offering 2.13 ordinary shares plus 13.15 euros for each ordinary share of Amsterdam-based ABN Amro. The total price is set at about 65.5 billion euros (90 billion U.S. dollars).
The offer will begin on Tuesday and stay open to ABN Amro until Oct. 4, the statement said.
However, Barclays' proposal still looks less attractive than that made by its rival, a three-bank consortium headed by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The trio, which also includes Dutch-Belgian group Fortis and Banco Santander of Spain, made a new bid last month, pledging 71.1 billion euros (98.2 billion dollars) to buy the Dutch bank and raising the cash component of its offer to 93 percent from 79 percent.
ABN Amro said earlier that it would hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on Sept. 20 to discuss the rival offers.
Source: Xinhua
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