A consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has emerged the victor in the six-month-long battle against Barclays for ABN Amro.

The consortium has secured the backing of 86 per cent of the Dutch bank's shareholders.

Today RBS surpassed an 80 per cent threshold needed to gain control of the bank, which it won after offering €71 billion (£49 billion) for ABN.

The RBS alliance, which includes Fortis, the Belgian-Dutch bank group, and Santander, of Spain, effectively won the race on Friday when Barclays declared that it had withdrawn its €67.5 billion bid, after holders of only 4.4 million shares, about 0.2 per cent of ABN, had backed its bid.

Sources said that the RBS alliance intends to declare its offer unconditional on Wednesday, the day that the DNB, the Dutch central bank, gives the bid its final approval.

Merrill Lynch, the American investment bank, stands to gain more than £150 million in advisory and financing fees as the sole banking adviser to the RBS consortium.

The fees will be a welcome boost to Merrill, which issued a surprise profit warning on Friday after having to write down $5 billion (£2.45 billion) in losses related to sub-prime lending in the wake of the credit crunch.

Merrill’s success in the ABN fight will also lift it to fourth position in the European mergers and acquisitions league tables and to the top spot in the equity capital markets league tables, according to Thomson Financial.

Barclays will walk away with a €200 million break fee from ABN that will more than offset the €80 million that it has to pay out in fees.

ABN Amro and RBS declined to comment.

Who gets what from takeover target

Fortis is to get
ABN’s global private clients business (excluding Latin America)
Global asset management business
Netherlands business unit

RBS is to get
ABN’s North American business (excluding LaSalle)
European business (excluding Antonveneta)
Asian business
Global clients business (including wholesale clients in the Netherlands and Latin America but not Brazil)

Santander is to get
ABN’s Latin America business unit (excluding wholesale clients outside Brazil)
Antonveneta
Interbank
DMC Consumer Finance

Shared assets
ABN’s head office, private equity portfolio and stakes in Capitalia, the Italian bank, Saudi Hollandi and Prime Bank

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