This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/business/6900272.stm

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
RBS sweetens offer for ABN Amro RBS sweetens offer for ABN Amro
(20 minutes later)
A group led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has sweetened its bid for Dutch lender ABN Amro by boosting the amount of cash it has offered. A group led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has sweetened its bid for Dutch lender ABN Amro by boosting the proportion of cash it has offered.
The cash component of its bid, worth some 71bn euros (£48bn), has increased to 93% from almost 80%, RBS said. The cash component of its bid, worth 71bn euros (£48bn), has increased to 93% from 79%, RBS said.
RBS is trying to win over ABN shareholders and trump a rival offer for the bank by the UK's Barclays. RBS is trying to win over ABN shareholders and trump an agreed offer for the bank by the UK's Barclays.
ABN has already agreed to be bought by Barclays, though the move has been criticised by some investors. A number of shareholders have criticised the sale of ABN to Barclays because of plans to sell key assets.
Offloading
On Friday, ABN was given clearance by the Dutch Supreme Court to sell its US division LaSalle to Bank of America.
Some shareholders had challenged the $21bn (£11.5bn) sale on the grounds that ABN had not sought their approval.
The Commercial Court backed the shareholders but the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the sale could go ahead.
Whichever bank ends up taking over ABN, it will now own the proceeds from the LaSalle sale instead of the US bank itself.
The new RBS offer is for ABN without its US unit LaSalle.
The other members of the RBS consortium are Fortis of Belgium and Spain's Banco Santander.