A loyal yet anonymous reader (his institution is almost certainly involved
in the ABN deal in one way or another) sends me more information on the subject
of hostile takeover bids in the banking industry. Is there, indeed, a banker
other than Fred Goodwin of RBS who goes in for such things?
Michel Pebereau of BNP made two hostile bids (for Paribas
and SocGen) at the same time, winning Paribas. Also, specifically with respect
to Fred Goodwin, he hasn’t ever made a hostile bid. He certainly takes the
credit for executing on NatWest, but in the first place, George Mathewson
was CEO at the time and in the second place, NatWest was already in play when
RBS made its bid, the initial hostile offer having been made by Peter
Birt of Bank of Scotland. (Birt, Mathewson and Goodwin have all since
been knighted).
Goodwin, it should be noted, is the only one of these men who remains a banking-industry
executive, although Pebereau remains chairman of BNP Paribas.
As far as the US banking system is concerned, I can’t see a hostile bid ever
happening – there are just too many regulators who would be too hard to
placate. But you never know.