BofA threatens legal action against ABN

Bank of America Corp. has threatened to take legal action against ABN Amro Holding NV should it make any attempt to block its plans to buy LaSalle Bank Corp., ABN's Chicago-based subsidiary, according to the Financial Times. The warning, which was made at a court hearing in Amsterdam on Saturday, increases the prospect of a long legal battle over the future of ABN Amro, which is the takeover target of London-based Barclays PLC and a also by a group of banks led by the Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland. A Dutch commercial court is planning to rule on whether to put a halt to the $21 billion sale to Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America. VEB, a Dutch shareholder group, argued that the decision to complete the deal should be passed along to shareholders. The RBS consortium, which includes Brussels, Belgium-based Fortis SA/NV and Madrid, Spain-based Santander, proposed a $98.3 billion (72 billion euros) cash-and-shares offer for ABN that surpasses the offer that the bank's agreed upon all-share takeover by Barclays. However, the consortium's bid relies on LaSalle remaining part of ABN. If the VEB case fails, the RBS consortium is expected to pursue ABN by making an offer for LaSalle conditional on it buying the whole bank, according to the report.