BofA to buy Chicago's LaSalle Bank

Barclays PLC today announced it would sell Chicago based LaSalle Bank Corp., a unit of ABN Amro Holding NV, to Bank of America Corp. for more than $21 billion. The deal comes a day after the announcement of one of the largest European mergers ever struck: ABN Amro Holding NV and Barclays, in a deal worth over $90 billion. The Amro-Barclays merger needs shareholder approval, so it is possible that rival bidders, led by the Royal Bank of Scotland, may still try to capture ABN Amro. The all-cash purchase of LaSalle will make Bank of America Chicago’s largest bank with 141 new branches in the Chicago area. LaSalle has $113 billion in total assets. Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America said it expects $800 million in after-tax cost savings in the transaction. Half of those would come in 2008 and the remainder would be realized in 2009. Bank of America said that it would have an estimated $800 million in after-tax restructuring costs. Barclays is based in London. ABN AMRO is based in Amsterdam.