Dutch bank ABN AMRO has withdrawn its backing of a takeover bid from Barclays and said it was no longer formally recommending offers from the British bank or a Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium.
The Netherlands' biggest bank faces competing offers of $65.6 billion ($89.55 billion) from Barclays and $71 billion from the consortium of RBS, Fortis of Belgium and Spain's Santander.
Today ABN Amro also presented its second quarter results today and reported a 7.1% drop in its net profit to $1.13 billion.
Despite the slide, the results were better than forecasts.
ABN originally backed Barclays when announcing a deal to merge with it in April.
But it has now effectively withdrawn its recommendation even after Barclays sweetened its offer to buy ABN last week to include more cash.
ABN's boards- the supervisory board and managing board - said they were currently not in a position to recommend the offers from Barclays or the consortium.
'ABN AMRO will further engage with both parties with the aim of continuing to ensure a level playing field and minimising any of the uncertainties currently associated with the offers with a view to optimising the attractive alternatives available to ABN AMRO's shareholders,' ABN said in a statement.
The RBS-led offer, which would result in a break-up of ABN, is more than 90% in cash and adds up to €38.1 per ABN share at current market prices - against Barclays' bid at $34.7 per share.
Barclays sweetened its offer with a cash portion, as China Development Bank and Singapore's Temasek took stakes in the bank, but its offer remains mostly in shares, and therefore vulnerable to recent market turbulence.
