British bank Barclays has drawn up contingency plans to restructure its all-share offer for Dutch rival ABN Amro with a significant cash sweetener, the Financial Times reported on June 13.
Barclays was not expected to make a decision about restructuring its 65 billion-euro (86.4 billion-dollar) offer until it becomes clear whether its rival bidder, a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland, can press ahead with its offer worth 71.4 billion euros, the FT said, citing people close to the matter. The Royal Bank of Scotland bid is mostly in cash, outgunning Barclays' agreed all-shares offer. However ABN Amro has yet to respond to the RBS proposal.
According to the FT, Barclays may decide to reduce the number of shares it would issue for ABN Amro and replace them with cash. Barclays is mindful of warnings from its shareholders not to raise its bid offer, the business daily added.
By seeking to take over ABN Amro, Barclays is bidding to create a vast global group and the second-biggest bank in Europe after HSBC. The consortium meanwhile, comprising also Banco Santander of Spain and Belgian-Dutch group Fortis, wants to break up the Dutch bank.
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