Royal Bank of Scotland to take over ABN Amro Romania

ABN Amro Romania, part of ABN’s European regional division, will be taken over by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), leader of the consortium that won the battle for control of ABN Amro. “The 20 subsidiaries ABN has in Romania will indeed become part of RBS,” RBS’s spokesperson, Linda Harper, told Business Standard.

ABN Amro Romania, operating in Romania since 1995, ranks 10th in the 2006 top of Romanian banks, with assets worth €1.56 billion and net profits of €10 million by the end of last year. The bank also registered a drop in market share, from 3.7 to 3.1 percent. 

“RBS has not yet estimated savings that will result from integrating retail banking operations, since the group was interested primarily in services offered to multinational corporations through ABN’s Global Banking division. However, by taking over the Dutch bank, RBS enters on markets with high growth potential, and Romania is one of them,” explained Harper when asked if RBS intends to keep the Romanian subsidiaries.

“Taking into account accelerated market growth, RBS will probably not renounce activities in Romania, at least not on the medium run,” London-based NCB Stockbrokers Analyst, Simon Willis, told Business Standard. The group will have a final decision regarding all acquired assets in a few weeks. Royal Bank of Scotland must validate assessments made prior to the acquisition, according to Harper.

The consortium, made up of RBS, Dutch-Belgian bank Fortis, and Spanish banking group Santander, bought 85 percent of ABN Amro’s shares, after an investor group at the Dutch bank accepted RBS’s offer of €71.8 billion, according to information published by Financial Times. Members of the consortium will have to split 4,500 subsidiaries in 53 countries and obtain savings by integrating acquired business.