Dutch clear Barclays' bid for ABN Amro

Barclays Bank won approval from the Ministry of Finance in the Netherlands yesterday for its bid to take over the Dutch bank ABN Amro. The British bank secured the "declaration of no objection" that it needs from the Dutch regulator and the Dutch central bank in order to proceed with its offer, and said there were no onerous conditions that would cause it difficulties.

The regulator is still considering a rival bid for ABN from a consortium comprising Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander of Spain, and Fortis of Belgium. It is taking longer to approve this offer because it was submitted later and involves plans to break up ABN.

John Varley, Barclays' chief executive, described the approval as a "significant milestone" in its bid for ABN. But the bank's success was overshadowed by continuing speculation yesterday that one or both of ABN's suitors could yet pull out of the bid battle. In particular, analysts have questioned whether, in the face of turbulence on credit and equity markets, Fortis will be able to raise the €23bn (£15.6bn) it is seeking from rights and debt issues to finance its part of the consortium's offer. If it fails to do so, the consortium would struggle to mount its bid.

While the consortium continued to insist yesterday that it was confident it would have no difficulties financing its bid, ABN shares have failed to recover most of last week's losses, suggesting investors remain anxious about the RBS-led bid.

ABN shares rose in trading yesterday, but closed at €34.5, marginally above the value of Barclays' offer, which is worth fractionally over €34 a share at the British bank's current valuation. The consortium's cash offer, meanwhile, values ABN at €38.16.

Yesterday, RBS entered the market to buy just over 3 per cent of ABN stock. It is understood that investment banks acting for the consortium started to build a stake on Friday, when ABN shares were as low as €31.20, and bought the rest yesterday.