British bank Barclays raised its bid for Dutch group ABN AMRO to 67.5 billion euros ($93 billion) on Monday, helped by some of the biggest ever overseas investments by China and Singapore.
China Development Bank, whose main function is to make loans in support of Chinese government policies, and Singapore state investor Temasek agreed to invest up to 13.4 billion euros in Barclays to aid its fight for ABN.
Barclays said its new bid for ABN included 24.8 billion euros in cash and was up from its previous all-stock offer of 65 billion euros.
The offer is still below a rival 71 billion-euro bid from a group of European banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), but Barclays said it expects the value of its offer to rise and indicated it has no plans to sweeten its offer further.
"We've put an enticing cream cake on the table for ABN shareholders, we are not going to top it up with cream," John Varley, Barclays chief executive, said at a press conference.
"We feel no need to do anything further."
A deal with either Barclays or the RBS team, which includes Spain's Santander and Belgian-Dutch group Fortis, would be the biggest ever bank takeover.
Analysts and investors said Barclays was playing a shrewd game, signaling it would not engage in a destructive bidding war and also boosting its shares to help win the day.
"Royal Bank of Scotland is still the favorite, but the odds are a little bit different to what they were on Friday," said Colin Morton at Rensburg Fund Management, a holder of both Barclays and RBS stock.
"The crux is whether shareholders want to participate in the deal or not ... you would think people would take the cash and run, unless Barclays can convince people how much benefit they can get out of it if they stick around," Morton added.
At 1415 GMT, Barclays shares were up 2.5 percent at 731 pence, boosted by the investment from China and Singapore and strong first-half results, and lifting the value of its new bid for ABN to almost 69 billion euros.
ABN shares were up 0.7 percent 36.91 euros, above the current value of the new Barclays bid at 36.35 euros but below the value of the RBS group's bid at 38.30 euros.
COMPETING BIDS
Barclays, Britain's third-biggest bank, said its new offer had not been recommended by ABN, but Varley said he hoped and expected that it would be.
The offer is conditional on being recommended by ABN's boards, but Varley declined to comment on whether he would withdraw if it doesn't get their backing.
ABN has come under pressure from some shareholders to back the higher RBS consortium bid and said it was assessing both offers, but it noted the planned strategic cooperation with China and Singapore would boost the growth opportunities available to the combination with Barclays.
An initial investment by them of 3.6 billion euros will be used by Barclays to buy back shares during the takeover process, which analysts said would help underpin its share price.
The remainder of the investment from China Development Bank and Temasek, almost 10 billion euros, will be made if Barclays wins ABN.
Barclays also reported a 12 percent rise in first-half pretax profit to 4.1 billion pounds ($8.5 billion), above an average forecast of 4.0 billion pounds in a Reuters Estimates poll of six analysts.
Some shareholders have urged Barclays to scrap its bid, but Barclays said it retained the support of investors and its revised offer and investment from China should dispel fears it might be drawn into a bidding war or issue shares at a discount.
"Both those ghosts have been exorcised," Varley said. "What matters is where our stock will be trading when ABN shareholders have to make their decision, and I think we've made their decision easier in favor of Barclays."
BIGGEST CHINA INVESTMENT
China Development Bank (CDB) will take a 3.1 percent stake in Barclays, potentially rising to 8 percent of an enlarged Barclays, while Temasek will take a 2.1 percent stake in Barclays, potentially rising to just over 3 percent.
CDB's stake would be the biggest overseas investment by China and Varley said he was "entirely comfortable" with it becoming the biggest shareholder.
CDB is one of the country's three lenders driven by a strategy to support government policy.
Flush with $1.33 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, China has made no secret of its intention to diversify its portfolio of foreign holdings, which is currently concentrated in government assets.
Barclays is the latest in a string of bets on financial companies by Temasek. About a third of its $85 billion portfolio is made up of financial services firms and last year it bought an 11.6 percent stake in UK-based Standard Chartered.
No comments:
Post a Comment