Royal Bank of Scotland consortium acquires ABN Amro

On November 2, 2007, a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, and including Fortis Group NV of Belgium and Santander Central Hispano SA of Spain, substantially completed its acquisition of Dutch bank ABN Amro, the largest financial services merger in history. The offer had been declared wholly unconditional on October 10 and, following a subsequent offering period which ended October 31, shares representing in aggregate approximately 98.8% of ABN Amro voting rights had been tendered to the offer. RFS Holdings intends to acquire 100% of ABN AMRO's issued and outstanding share capital in the shortest possible time through the appropriate legal process. Fasken Martineau provided Canadian bank and securities regulatory and antitrust legal advice to the consortium with a team which includes among others: Robert McDowell, Robert Elliott and Kathleen Yoa (financial services); Garth Foster, Bruce Blain, Karoline Kralka and Catherine Fraser (securities and M&A); and Doug New, Huy Do and Mark Magro (antitrust).