A lot of companies seem interested in ABN Amro (NYSE: ABN), or, at least, some of its pieces. Barclays (NYSE: BCS) made the first bid for ABN, and then Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) made plans to buy the LaSalle Bank division in the US.
Royal Bank of Scotland put together a group of financial institutions which upped the bid to €71.4 billion. Fortis and Santander, the other major banks in their group, would each have taken pieces of ABN.
Now, Barclays is thinking of improving its offer by upping the cash portion of the deal. According to the FT: "The introduction of cash would appeal to the hedge funds that hold a big proportion of ABN Amro's shares."
The battle between the banks to own ABN raises a question about whether bidding too high could hurt Barclays down the road. ABN's shares are up 30% since the bidding began. If the Barclays bid is reasonable, investors would have to assume that the market was undervaluing ABN by a very significant margin.
If the value of ABN was pegged correctly before the offers began, Barclays could be walking into a huge problem.
Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.
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