Bank of America attacks court's 'shocking' ABN Amro ruling - report |
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Published
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Fri, 08 Jun 2007 06:43
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AMSTERDAM (Thomson Financial) - Bank of America Corp will accuse a Dutch commercial court of acting in a 'shocking' and unlawful manner by blocking its 21 bln usd acquisition of ABN Amro Holding NV's US unit LaSalle in an appeal to the Dutch Supreme Court, the Financial Times newspaper reported.According to the appeal filing, a copy of which was obtained by the FT, Bank of America claims that the Amsterdam Enterprise Chamber breached European Union and Dutch law last month when it ruled in favour of calls from ABN investors for the LaSalle deal to be frozen until shareholders can vote on the deal, the newspaper said.The LaSalle deal is part of ABN Amro's agreed merger with Barclays PLC, but the court ruling threw open the takeover battle for ABN Amro, leading to a rival takeover bid from a consortium of banks including Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Banco Santander Central Hispano SA and Fortis NV.Both ABN Amro and Bank of America have appealed the ruling.In its appeal statement, Bank of America claims it was 'shocking' that the Enterprise Chamber 'chose to disregard fundamental Dutch and European Union company law designed to protect third parties' for reasons that were 'incomprehensible', thereby damaging the interests of BofA, which had acted in good faith. That was unlawful, the claim states, the FT reported.The Enterprise Chamber ruling that ABN was not allowed to sell LaSalle to BofA without shareholder approval led to 'unacceptable negative consequences for BofA', the appeal states.The document also questions the damage that could be done to the relationship between Dutch and foreign companies if the lower court ruling is not overturned, the newspaper reported.The supreme court could deliver a decision by early July, the FT said.Aaron Gray-Block; aaron.gray-block@thomson.comagb/jlwCOPYRIGHTCopyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.
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BoA, Barclays to appeal court ruling on ABN Amro LaSalle sale 