Wall $treet Folly

ABN Amro CFO bails on the firm

ABN Amro’s chief financial officer Hugh Scott-Barrett announced his resignation on Thursday in the midst of the titanic takeover battle for the Dutch lender.

Mr Scott-Barrett’s decision to leave the bank on August 1 was taken despite there being no certainty as to the fate of ABN. It has agreed a merger with Barclays, of the UK, but is being pursued by a rival trio of European banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland.

The UK-born banker, the most senior non-Dutchman at ABN, said the move was “a logical step” given that he had declined the offer of a job with the bank that would be created by the combination of ABN and Barclays. The board of the new entity would be dominated by Barclays nominees.

Rijkman Groenink, ABN chief executive, said the bank “regretfully accepted” Mr Scott-Barrett’s decision. Mr Groenink said the bank was losing “one of the best financial minds in the industry”.

 

ABN Amro finance chief resigns - Financial Times

Management fears: Could Citigroup be busted up?

That's what the Financial TImes is suggesting after ABN Amro was successfully targetted by activist investors and forced to sell itself.

Senior Citigroup executives fear the world’s biggest financial services company could become the target of activist hedge funds that would press for it to be broken up.

The executives believe Citigroup needs to step up its investor relations and explain better to shareholders the value of keeping its businesses together.

Many have dismissed the possibility that Citigroup, valued at $260bn, could become an activist target. But one Citigroup executive said: “Even Citigroup is not too big. It’s not impossible.”

ABN Amro eliminating around 5% of its North American jobs

At least they didn't make the announcement before the Christmas holiday:

ABN Amro Holding NV, the largest Dutch bank, will cut about 900 jobs in North America, including positions at Chicago-based LaSalle Bank, after posting its first drop in quarterly profit in more than four years.

The reductions, which account for about 5 percent of ABN Amro's workforce on the continent, will occur across almost all areas of the bank and at all major locations, the Amsterdam- based company said today in a statement. Spokesman Shawn Platt said most of the cuts will take place by mid-2007.

Chief Executive Officer Rijkman Groenink said in October he was accelerating a plan to ``focus'' the bank and boost profit after 5,000 job cuts since 2004 failed to curb costs. Earnings growth at U.S. banks is slowing because increases in interest rates have damped demand for mortgages and raised lenders' costs to hold deposits....

About 500 of the job reductions will be in the Chicago area and less than 200 will be in Michigan, where the bank's mortgage-lending unit is based, ABN's Platt said. The rest of the cuts will occur in the northeast and other areas. ABN also has offices in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, Canada.

ABN Amro Plans to Eliminate 900 Jobs in North America - Bloomberg