serious euro-keiretsu action

[DANIEL.DAVIES at flemings.com]

Royal Bank of Scotland announced a bid for NatWest bank today.  Who cares?
Well, the interesting thing is the way the deal's being financed.  RBOS
isn't doing anything so vulgar as to ask the equity market for this money.
Instead, it's raising it from Commercial & General Union (its insurance
partner company) and Banco Santander Centrale Hispano, a 10% shareholder.
In turn, BSCH is raising funds to make its contribution to the deal by
selling shares to its "club" of banking partners -- Societe Generale of
France, Commerzbank of Germany and San-Paolo IMI of Italy.  As far as I can
see, this is a GBP26.5bn bid, with a GBP4bn cash element, launched without
a single new share being issued to the public.  Anglo-Saxon capitalism?
Methinks not.  The BSCH-centred "club of Europe" is looking like becoming
the next Mitsubishi.

dd

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