Money world

A year ago, ABN AMRO was at the center of a fiercely fought $100 billion takeover battle. Now the Dutch bank’s new owner Fortis is struggling to find a buyer for ABN at a knock-down price.

Partly-nationalized Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis is hoping to sell ABN for 10 billion to 12 billion euros ($14.3-$17.2 billion), but analysts estimate that the Dutch bank is more likely to fetch between 6 billion and 8 billion euros.

ING had come closest to buying ABN AMRO, sources familiar with discussions have said, but walked away on Monday because a deal would not meet its “financial requirements.”

Fortis put ABN up for sale as part of its rescue deal with Benelux governments on Sunday.

The other potential buyers were unlisted Dutch rival Rabobank and BNP Paribas, and both were approached, sources familiar with the weekend’s emergency government talks said.

Analysts say other possible buyers include Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Spain’s Santander http://us-no-fax-payday-loans.com. The latter two partnered Fortis last year in a consortium to buy ABN and carve it up.

Barclays, which lost its bid for ABN last year, has also been cited as a possible buyer, but that is seen unlikely after its purchase of Lehman’s U.S. broker-dealer operations and as rival RBS took the ABN wholesale operations it once coveted.

“The obvious buyer really was ING,” said JPMorgan Securities analyst Duncan Russell. “The only to reason to buy it is if you’ve got synergies.” 

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