Barclay's increases bid price fro ABN Amro

After the consortium of three European banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland, raised its cash proportion of its bid to buy out ABN Amro, Barclay�s seems to answer this increase through a revised bid.

Barclays, the competing bidder, has increased its offer by �2.9 billion ($4 billion) to �67.5 billion ($93.3 billion). The new offer is divided into �42.7 billion in shares and �24.8 billion as cash. Barclay�s would raise part of fund by selling part of its stake in itself worth �13.4 billion ($18.52 billion), to China Development Bank and Singapore�s state-owned Temasek Holdings. Out of this, �3.6 billion investment is not unconditional to the outcome of the merger, while the remaining �9.8 billion investment is conditional to the merger being fulfilled.

Although, Barclay�s bidding price is yet lower than the �71.1 billion ($98.2 billion) mostly cash bid from a consortium of three European banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland.

If Barclay�s is to overtake ABN Amro, the Chinese state would be a 7% stakeholder in the new entity, while Singapore having 3%. But if it fails, both governments would have to opt for smaller stakes in Barclays. ABN Amro recently opened its first branch in China.