Counter offer made for ABN's LaSalle

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Royal Bank of Scotland and its Spanish and Belgian partners are offering $24.5 billion for ABN Amro's Chicago-based LaSalle Bank, provided they also purchase the rest of ABN, according to media reports out of Europe.

The group of RBS, Spain's Santander and the Belgian-Dutch Fortis will propose an offer of about 39 euros per share for all of ABN, according to reports. That would value the total deal for the Dutch bank at about 72 billion euros, the biggest bank deal ever.

Full details of the RBS-led offer are still fluid. The group is putting together its offer against a late Sunday deadline by ABN and has been negotiating with the Dutch bank through the weekend.

The RBS proposal would seem to trump an all-share offer of about 66 billion euros for ABN from Britain's Barclays and a $21 billion side deal for LaSalle with Bank of America (Charts, Fortune 500).

The Wall Street Journal reported that the RBS-led group's offer would be 70 percent cash and 30 percent in RBS shares, but that Santander and Fortis aren't expected to begin fundraising until the fourth quarter. That could raise questions for ABN shareholders whether financing is secure, the newspaper pointed out.

These include making the purchase of LaSalle conditional on also buying the rest of ABN. Sources have said this would effectively mean the consortium would be paying itself, so they can make a high bid for the business.

The offer for ABN is also conditional on the consortium not being exposed to any litigation related to the sale of LaSalle, the sources said.

Bank of America on Friday sued ABN, seeking damages and a court injunction to block the sale of LaSalle to a rival bidder.