Transatlantic stock market operator NYSE Euronext has begun an investigation into the trading in shares in Dutch bank ABN Amro that surrounded an announcement that ABN was a takeover target of British bank Barclays.
'NYSE Euronext has opened an investigation into ABN Amro share trading in which we are fully co-operating,' an ABN spokeswoman told the AFP news agency.
ABN and Barclays announced on March 19 that they were in talks that could lead to the acquisition of ABN by Barclays. In the days just ahead of the announcement a sharp surge in the number of ABN shares traded was detected.
The Barclays bid, backed by ABN management, values ABN at nearly €67 billion. But that offer was topped at the end of May by a three-bank consortium headed by Royal Bank of Scotland, which bid more than €71 billion.
